It
is
one
vainglorious
outrage
after
another
in
this
White
House.
If
you
write
about
some
dumbfounding
scandal
in
the
morning,
another
is
fairly
likely
to
arise
by
the
afternoon.
That’s
the
idea,
of
course:
President
Trump
is
trying
to
wear
everyone
out,
to
overload
us,
to
atomize
our
attention.
So,
let’s
slow
down
for
a
moment
…
and
focus.
This
weekend,
instead
of
charging
taxpayers
millions
for
yet
another
golf
outing,
Trump
is
instead
charging
taxpayers
tens
of
millions
to
throw
himself
a
military
birthday
parade.
This
Saturday,
June
14,
dozens
of
military
aircraft,
hundreds
of
armored
vehicles,
and
thousands
of
U.S.
troops
will
descend
upon
Washington,
D.C.,
to
take
part
in
a
parade.
Sycophantic
feds
have
been
parroting
the
lie
that
the
parade
is
to
honor
the
250th
anniversary
of
the
U.S.
Army,
though
we
all
really
know
it
is
to
stroke
Donald
Trump’s
ego
on
his
79th
birthday.
There
were
no
plans
for
such
a
military
parade
before
Trump
personally
intervened
weeks
ago
in
the
planning
of
the
celebration
of
the
Army’s
250th
year.
Like
when
Trump’s
favorite
former
weekend
Fox
News
host
restored
the
name
of
“Fort
Bragg”
from
“Fort
Liberty”
by
finding
some
random
brave
soldier
who
happened
to
be
named
“Bragg”
and
then
pretended
it
was
a
coincidence
that
he
shared
a
last
name
with
the
camp’s
former
namesake,
Confederate
monster
Braxton
Bragg,
the
official
fig
leaf
is
fooling
no
one.
The
Army
estimates
this
75-minute
birthday
parade
will
cost
taxpayers
$25
million
to
$45
million.
Since
the
military
quite
famously
spends
way
more
than
it
thinks
it
is
going
to
on
almost
everything,
I
wouldn’t
put
too
much
stock
in
that
already
vague
estimate.
Trump
assures
us
that
the
cost
will
be
“[p]eanuts
compared
to
the
value
of
doing
it,”
much
as
he
assured
us
that
“Mexico
is
paying
for
the
wall”
that
Mexico
did
not
actually
pay
one
penny
for.
To
be
clear,
there
is
no
value
to
be
gained
by
needlessly
tearing
up
the
streets
of
the
nation’s
capital
as
a
bunch
of
60-ton
Abrams
tanks
that
get
0.6
mpg
roll
over
them.
I
am
far
from
the
first
to
point
out
that
military
parades
on
leaders’
birthdays
are
far
more
common
in
weak
foreign
dictatorships
than
in
strong
western
democracies.
Strong
nations
have
not
found
blocks
of
marching
soldiers
to
be
intimidating
for
quite
a
long
time.
Meanwhile,
in
Ukraine,
where
our
allies
are
actually
bravely
fighting
a
brutal
war
in
defense
of
democracy
rather
than
putting
on
war-themed
street
theater,
the
Trump
administration
continues
to
jerk
U.S.
support.
Most
recently,
Trump’s
defense
secretary
redirected
20,000
specialized
anti-drone
weapons
that
the
U.S.
had
already
promised
Ukraine
to
the
Middle
East
instead.
Canada
continues
to
step
up
to
help
fill
the
void
created
by
the
Trump
administration.
Instead
of
pointlessly
driving
military
equipment
around
Ottawa,
this
June
our
neighbor
to
the
north
is
sending
$22
million
worth
of
its
Bison
and
Coyote
armored
vehicles
to
Ukraine
to
be
used
against
the
Russian
invaders.
It
is
a
drop
in
the
bucket
compared
to
the
billions
in
aid
Canada
and
other
countries
have
already
pledged
to
Ukraine,
yet
it’s
a
notable
one
considering
how
American
taxpayers
are
spending
a
similar
amount
on
armored
vehicles
this
weekend.
What
do
you
think
makes
a
nation
look
stronger
on
the
global
stage:
showing
the
world
it
has
plenty
of
advanced
military
equipment
to
spare
when
the
time
comes
to
assist
an
ally
in
desperate
need,
or
using
tens
of
millions
to
shatter
the
pavement
of
its
own
capital
city
so
that
its
president
can
feel
like
a
big
shot
on
his
birthday?
President
Theodore
Roosevelt,
a
real
patriot,
a
combat
veteran,
and
deserved
winner
of
the
Nobel
Peace
Prize,
popularized
and
applied
to
his
foreign
policy
what
he
believed
was
a
West
African
proverb:
“Speak
softly
and
carry
a
big
stick.”
Trump’s
foreign
policy,
on
the
other
hand,
as
exemplified
by
his
birthday
military
parade,
could
be
better
characterized
as,
“Speak
loudly
but
carry
a
limp
dick.”
Enjoy
your
parade,
MAGA.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].