NO PARADE! Say it LOUD, Say it OFTEN!

HI All,

Have found a Facebook page for The DOD. Please take a moment to express what I hope might be your outrage that money might be spent on a parade when we have homeless Vets.

Here's My Post:... As a veteran and Citizen, I am outraged that leaders of the joint forces might flirt with our president's fantasy about a parade. Until there are NO HOMELESS VETS, celebration needs to be minimized and outreach maximized. I'm going to share this site with my friends and network and ask people to express themselves to you about this foolish idea. I am also concerned that the website you all publish to take input and feedback apparently doesn't function.

It is my hope that is because so many people are expressing themselves. (https://kb.defense.gov/) 

Stop This In Its Tracks!

Here's the working FB link: https://www.facebook.com/DeptofDefense

RESIST!

Ron Carter

Done. Thank you.

I'll be all in for a BIG Parade to Celebrate that our Country no longer has Homeless Vets!  Even under The Orange MORON!

-Ron

I remember in the 60's..........yes Virginia there was a 60's.........when Vietnam Vets for peace in Vietnam

were formed.  These were the guys that were there and lived to come home........some  did not

Well the bad guys in the crowds never knew how to relate to them.   Cowards and Draft Dodgers was

some names they could never be called.  These were the grunts who went and learned that not everything

the Government and Military said was true

Also,   frankly the Government did not know how to relate to them

My greater point is ,  yes Resist............Vinceramos

A leader Viet Vets for Peace was John Kerry.

Who could have guessed that his service in Vietnam would have been used against him when he ran for President?

Parades on Memorial Day are traditional, including here in Maplewood. If Trump tries to use Memorial Day for his Military Parade what should be the response?

I never understood how anyone could make those charges.  His duty on the armed swift boats patrolling the rivers and waterways was about as dangerous as you could get.  And yes he spoke fluent French which apparently counted as a negative

author said:

I never understood how anyone could make those charges.  

Anyone can make any charges. It's called "politics".

https://twitter.com/davidafrench/status/961065611551035392

John Kerry was a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW).

http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=3411

Veterans For Peace is another veterans peace group that started in the 1980's. It was originally called Veterans For Peace in Vietnam in the 1970's.

https://www.veteransforpeace.org

Trump will have his parade whether we like it or not.  what would be better if nobody showed up.  Just Trump in the audience with her knocking his  hand away....  

nails said:

https://twitter.com/davidafrench/status/961065611551035392

Damn, how much wrong can you fit in one tweet?

If the bone spurred draft dodging orange creep gets away with having this nazi parade, only the crazies and the demented will show up.

No Parade until NO HOMELESS VETS!

-Ron

He'll have his parade and he will probably have his viewing stand in front of his hotel.

Will former POW's who were captured be allowed to march?  Trump said he does not admire them.

How insecure and needy is this guy?!  It's his chance to play army.  Maybe he can award himself that Purple Heart he said he always wanted.  This is pathetic.  Does he even realize that in America, the Commander in Chief is a civilian and why that is so?!

It's all about him and what he wants.  He's like a petulant child. "I want a parade!"   He doesn't care one bit about the troops or the military, he only wants to use them for HIS benefit.   He'll use it as a way to try and boost his image, and say anyone against it is treasonous and 'hates the troops."  

This is the POTUS!   How far we have fallen.  Everyone who voted for this guy should be embarrassed and apologize.

Maybe they can dress him up in a nice Banana Republic dictator type uniform, complete with medals and gold epaulets.

Will Leni Riefenstahl be there to film it?  "Triumph of the Shill"

Re Mr. French's tweet (he's actually one of the more humane NR voices and anti-Trump):

The Taliban is back with a vengeance and our Iraqi adventure led to the formation of ISIS and paved the way for Iran to own that country but whatever, I like parades.

I'm not trying to be contrarian here, but as I was thinking about this, I started to realize that if ever there was a country where a military parade would exemplify it's attitude towards the military, it's the United States.

We worship our soldiers, call them warriors and heroes, regardless of what they've done or why they've done it.

We spend godawful amounts on the military with nary a peep from the population, even though it causes us to be a far more unfair society than any other developed country.

Pretty much every day for the last 15 years, our bombs have been killing innocent civilians. We have easily killed many thousands more innocent people than any terrorist group could ever hope to kill.

We are the most militaristic society in probably the history of the world. We've been in constant military engagements since WW II. We have 800 military bases around the world. 800.  In about 80 countries.

I could go on and on with the numbers and other examples of our militarism.  There's lots of data to pick from.

Having said all that, it's quite hypocritical to all of sudden get up in arms about a damn parade. Yes, a parade would be grotesque - every military parade is grotesque.

But it's no more grotesque than what we've allowed America to become.

So currently, we're in high dudgeon over the idea of a parade, but nary a word about the fact that we're about to give the military an extra 160 billion dollars.

Do you know what we could do with 160 billion dollars?

I posted this in another thread, but it really belongs here:

the things you learn on FB that you don't know if you're not in the right wing echo chamber.  Apparently the U.S. has recently won all its overseas wars.  We've defeated ISIS, and we've won in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  I learned this because the military parade Trump requested is being described by right wingers as SOP because it's a victory parade to celebrate the military conquests that Trump has earned (as opposed to the "leading from behind" Obama, who couldn't lead the military to victory).

Hollywood should stop complaining about Trump and make a really great 1984 re-make.

When Trump bombed Syria, the pro-war mainstream media called him presidential and quoted from Leonard Cohen and called the bombs beautiful. Few complained about that but now a parade is a big deal. We need more people getting upset about the obscene military actions of our country,  not just some parade normalizing more of that. This is not an argument between funding a parade instead of homeless vets. This should be an argument against the whole military budget and how it is bankrupting the whole country and not making us safer.  Our empire is falling in a predictable pattern.

drummerboy said:

I'm not trying to be contrarian here, but as I was thinking about this, I started to realize that if ever there was a country where a military parade would exemplify it's attitude towards the military, it's the United States.

We worship our soldiers, call them warriors and heroes, regardless of what they've done or why they've done it.


We spend godawful amounts on the military with nary a peep from the population, even though it causes us to be a far more unfair society than any other developed country.

Pretty much every day for the last 15 years, our bombs have been killing innocent civilians. We have easily killed many thousands more innocent people than any terrorist group could ever hope to kill.


We are the most militaristic society in probably the history of the world. We've been in constant military engagements since WW II. We have 800 military bases around the world. 800.  In about 80 countries.

I could go on and on with the numbers and other examples of our militarism.  There's lots of data to pick from.


Having said all that, it's quite hypocritical to all of sudden get up in arms about a damn parade. Yes, a parade would be grotesque - every military parade is grotesque.

But it's no more grotesque than what we've allowed America to become.

We who were part of the first major Resistance made I think a major error.  Of course emotions were at a high point.  We did not appreciate the service and the sacrifices made by our troops during the Vietnam incursion.   When they came home,  if they came home we did not greet them with applause at the airports as is done today.  When I was drafted,  many of those who rode the bus to the larger recruiting station

were friends from high school.   These were tough , street guys and they were scared.

And not only we of the Resistance but the average citizen was indifferent to them upon their return

I apologize............I knew the guys from my neighborhood............and there were young men from 1000's

of neighborhoods who were being thrown into the grinder.  I was wrong

All gave something

Some gave everything.............And the day will come when Nations shall make their swords into plowshares

                                                Neither will they study war anymore

author said:

All gave something

Some gave everything.............And the day will come when Nations shall make their swords into plowshares

                                                Neither will they study war anymore

How's that supposed to happen unless no one volunteers and those who are drafted refuse to go?

there's an idea.

LOST said:

author said:

All gave something

Some gave everything.............And the day will come when Nations shall make their swords into plowshares

                                                Neither will they study war anymore

How's that supposed to happen unless no one volunteers and those who are drafted refuse to go?

LOST said:

author said:

All gave something

Some gave everything.............And the day will come when Nations shall make their swords into plowshares

                                                Neither will they study war anymore

How's that supposed to happen unless no one volunteers and those who are drafted refuse to go?

At the time in question........there was the greatest peace group named Women......strike for peace.

Many missed the point that it was taken from one of the old Greek Plays ..........based on the thought

that the women of Ancient Greece were tired of the never ending wars between Athens and Sparta.

They gave their men an ultimatum...............there would be no more bedroom frolicking till all sides

placed down their arms and there  was peace in the land.

Not related..........I served as a Field Secretary for one of the student peace groups.   I would travel to

high schools and colleges giving a talk,   usually with a partner as to the evils of US participation in the

Vietnam conflict............sometimes an anti apartheid speaker would be with me.  We spoke to whoever

would have us.   She would have made a great Wobbly                     "On Freedom"

Anyway...............I frequently quoted my favorite poet........You have taken a word that means nothing

                                                                                              and given it the power to send men to their

                                                                                               deaths

                                                                                              Men are not free who are sent to die

                                                                                              Only those who send them are free  

                                                                                              You should have Freedom stuffed down your

                                                                                              fat throat

Or Hemingway.........."  Notes on the next war

In the old days they said it was both fitting and sweet to die for ones country

In modern warfare this is no longer true

You will die like a dog for no good reason

It takes a changing of the mindset........How often will we be lied to?  The Domino Theory?

Weapons of Mass Destruction???

With the Original Resistance.............we used the Omega Sign

Our credo read........this is a Draft Card...........The Government says to carry it at all times

That our bodies belong to them.........Some Men Say Hell NO.............we call ourselves "The Resistance"

I think I had my own private FBI man assigned to me

Like Star Trek............at another time and another place ,  I could have called him "Friend"

During my time of modest contributions to the struggle,  we were fortunate to have some of the great ones of the previous generation to work with us............Bayard Rustin,  Jim Peck one of the original Freedom

Riders.............whose desk was 10 feet from mine.

The earlier generation had gone to prison for not cooperating with the Selective Service System.  And

during their years as guests of Uncle Sam,  the work continued.  They fought,  they struck and worked against a system of Racial Segregation  within our prisons.  And time after time they won.........bringing

equality and ending segregation in food and recreation facilities.  Being a troublemaker and obstructionist

is in the blood

Second best story I ever heard had to do with the refusal to pay Income Tax dedicated to the Military

It seems that one fella got a hold of the Federal Budget.........found out that 4 per cent of his tax dollar

went to education.....three percent to Transportation.....one percent to Senior Needs ............5 percent

to the Military etc.

He wrote out 20 checks payable directly to the appropriate dept.   The Military debit he sent to the Dept of

 Education...........so that at the end of the day he paid his entire tax bill but did not send the Military

Monies to them but rather to Education

The IRS just looked the other way

Now..........will he order a parade.   I don't think so.   He is far from the intelligent being he claims to be

But he does have street smarts.  He denies them......but he is sensitive to polls and public opinion

I say his advisors will explain to him how very much the public is opposed to such a show.

He wants to be loved or at least admired............he will put it together