Actually the smoke from too many fireworks is obscuring the show. Grucci cmon pic.twitter.com/1xUv71CCc0
— Gene Park (@GenePark) July 5, 2019
The cloud obscuring the #fourthofjuly fireworks looks like Trump’s hair. The man bends nature to his will and image. pic.twitter.com/bkaIauXzhx
— Gene Park (@GenePark) July 5, 2019
The webcam at the National Mall was abruptly shut down without notice and has been removed from the https://t.co/htcTPrpZCO site. Presumably to stop viewers from seeing the lack of attendees at the #TrumpParade. We are about to relive Trump’s inauguration all over again. pic.twitter.com/dDzoGLhkPK
— Spin Doctor (@SpinDr) July 4, 2019
tonight’s event is tanking https://t.co/5w33spoNlZ
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) July 4, 2019
Current crowd estimate is 3.4 million people. pic.twitter.com/Bh8B0ezV4X
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 4, 2019
The #TrumpParade is EMPTY! There isn’t 3.4 million in attendance, maybe 10k+ af the most and it’s torrential downpour with crowds leaving. @realDonaldTrump #MAGA ?? pic.twitter.com/75QYvcJka7
— Enlightened (@BwashedSheeple) July 4, 2019
The reflecting pool is an awfully dumb place to be hanging out in a lightning storm but at least the Trump Administration was smart enough to put chain link fence all around it for people to grab ahold of… (via @schatz_rashad) #FourthofJuly #TrumpParade pic.twitter.com/CwxWeU8cv5
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) July 4, 2019
Freedom cages.
— Mother Nature Strikes Back! (@NMblondewino) July 4, 2019
We were promised an armored division rolling down Constitution Avenue to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; we'll get two tanks parked in front of Diamond and Silk https://t.co/L1CoR2wj7l
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 4, 2019
Trump is speaking in a protective enclosure at the Lincoln Memorial but since it rained this is what it looks like on air pic.twitter.com/xJeYiVF7x3
— jordan (@JordanUhl) July 4, 2019
Here’s what the White House livestream is showing, which is presumably similar to why Trump will see. From this perspective, it looks crowded. pic.twitter.com/9oVOdS5S5a
— Blake News (@blakehounshell) July 4, 2019
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) July 5, 2019
This is seriously a bad speech. I don't mean jingoistic or mean or evil. It's not really any of that. (Yet.) I mean it's "fire the speechwriters" bad, like it was written by a committee of AP History students who crammed for the exam this morning.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 4, 2019
Also he's really, really bad at delivering written speeches. Keeps missing hte transitions, switches to shouting at some points, and then gets excited when he sees a phrase he recognizes. But to be fair, it's a boring and cliched speech.
— Jonathan Bernstein (@jbview) July 4, 2019
Never be the last comrade to stop clapping https://t.co/UxkMjODK3S
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2019
Jeffro
Ari, man, I used to just hate you and now I both pity you and hate your guts.
debbie
I bet Trump demanded yuuuge quantities of pyrotechnics, and they couldn’t bear to tell him it was a bad idea.
Frankensteinbeck
In the brutal dictatorships he admires, the military is a personal tool of the ruler. What you are witnessing is cargo cult politics.
Jerzy Russian
Spent the whole day in the garage. Looks like I did not miss much.
mad citizen
Well I don’t have much to say about this but thanks to you and all the Front Pagers for taking the time to keep us informed with real information all the time. For some reason today I was thinking about all the norms that are gone by this guy, mostly because him and his staff (what there is of it) are simply lazy phucks. Like, the every Saturday radio/video address delivered by the President. Granted, I never thought much of it, and am OK if it doesn’t come back, but geez, the sheer laziness of ruling by twitter. Like the Census question–why does a Federal Judge or the DOJ attorney take a tweet as a serious direction from the guy? Make him do his job–actually draft and sign a directive to do something. These years are a laughingstock shytshow in the Executive Branch, not to mention the senate leader.
I’m finishing reading Kamala’s book and notice that the few times she mentions the two R leaders, she doesn’t write their names, but goes with a title or something else. Good practice.
SFAW
I assume Josh was joking about the 3.4 M people, but when was the Blake Hounshell photo taken? Today? Obama’a inauguration? The Nationals winning the WS?
ETA: And is the Hounshell photo real? Or Photoshopped?
Matt McIrvin
For what it’s worth, I heard the bit about the webcam being turned off because of low crowds is incorrect; it had been down for some time.
Mike in NC
Those sad assholes working for Fat Bastard. My company relocated me to the DC area in 1990, so I ended up on a date on July 4. We worked our way over to Georgetown looking for a good spot to watch the fireworks. All that I still remember is that I dropped her off at her apartment near DuPont Circle and then had to crawl home to my place in Germantown, MD.
Jeffro
I’m listening to the PBO speech TaMara posted earlier tonight…it will be amazing to have a truly great American president once again, and soon.
Jerry
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, looks like they were down for a long time now.
Frankensteinbeck
Addendum: I betting Trump is hoping, and I wouldn’t surprise if he’s hinting for a military coup in his favor. He is incapable of grasping that the military just isn’t that into him.
patrick II
@Frankensteinbeck:
He was trying to avoid a more political speech while still appealing to his base. A salute to the the military was the answer.
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: The thing is, I’m sure there’s a significant fraction of the military that is into him. So it might turn into a civil war between military pro-Trump and anti-Trump factions almost immediately.
Bill Arnold
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah. I was trying to track the day in DC while at a party, and had to be careful to use multiple sources. Weather radars/predictive forecasts were helpful.
Frankly, the rain was about right (a little more might have been better, critic I am), and nobody got hurt by lightning or falling branches. The Fox News still of him behind a rain-soaked shield might piss him off. His gaffs delivering the speech will be hard to explain and easy to mock.
Ari Fleischer might be telling the truth. :-) Trump’s speeches are generally delivered very badly, disregarding the content.
Need to watch the speech now, ugh.
I presume that the Blue Angels had more in plan than a simple flyby, that must have been cancelled due to clouds, but haven’t found documentation yet.
NotMax
Not foolish and brave, these leaders of ours
Just stupid and petty, unworthy of power
Just a little leak here and a small error there
Another square mile poisoned forever
A series of sad and pathetic little fizzles
New Model Army, “Ballad“
Bill Arnold
This will be fun, re a deleted Trump Tweet:
Aircraft One
via
Trump writes that “Aircraft One” may do a “low & loud sprint” over his military parade (Rob Beschizza Jul 4, 2019)
More on that:
https://www.newsweek.com/george-conway-slams-trump-apparently-confusing-name-air-force-one-putins-aircraft-one-1447639
Frankensteinbeck
@Matt McIrvin:
No way. Thank goodness, our military doesn’t work like that. Specifically NOT doing that is drilled into them quite hard, and as the tanks today demonstrate, the brass is dragging their feet obeying the minimum their oaths require. The second his official, legal time is up, he’s going to get a shrug and “You’re not the boss of me.” He’s too much a coward to make them tell him that ahead of time.
Gelfling 545
@patrick II: I imagine they’ve been drumming into him for days that he must not go into his campaign spiel as people would be looking closely for any hint of violations. The little glimpses I got, his crowd outside the vip area looked a bit disappointed. I expect they wanted blood and thunder.
Renie
they have already sent out fake photos showing the crowds and all the eagle eyes on the internet have shown how they are fake. I saw one that if real, people would have to be standing on top of the WW2 monuments; doubt that happened. Sky also not stormy looking. His ego is so pathetic
oatler.
My Trumpista neighbors are watching the fireworks show visible from our street while repeat-playing some dumb country fuck song about god bless the usa.
randy khan
In the end, Trump got a decent crowd, but nothing noteworthy. If you look at the photos taken facing the memorial, there are definite green patches, and the area where the crowd gathered isn’t really that big in the first place. I bet it was a fraction of the number on the Washington Monument grounds.
Jay
@oatler.:
Could be worse, Yellow Vests Canada ( Nazis actually, not oil, or jobs) held a Canada Day protest in Ottawa, the slack jawed yokels disrespectfully dragged their Canadian flags on the ground, ( because the fat obese fucks were wilting in the heat), while blaring out Greenwood’s “God Bless America”, the redneck/KKK anthem out of a 1980’s boom box.
Less than 25 showed.
Ruckus
@Jerzy Russian:
I went to work for half a day. I’ve been watching Netflix otherwise and listening to what sounds like a naval bombardment with sirens. Can’t tell if they are cops, fire or ambulances. And of course I wouldn’t watch this man doing the best impersonation of the worst person in the world as president. I visited my father regularly in the home when he had Alzheimer’s, but that was one man who wasn’t acting as the president of his kindergarten class, just a normal man with a rather debilitating disease. I’m now 5 yrs older than my dad was when he started showing signs of his disease. I start therapy for my issues on Monday. I’m getting old(er), my age is showing but I’m not trying to be president of my kindergarten class either.
My point is that we can’t easily help from getting older, but we can at least try to be a better person. Our president can’t because he is a deeply flawed human being, whose disease can kill a lot of us and his disease tells him he is the best at everything. And his supporters want something from him, that is to go to the front of that kindergarten class. Except he thinks he’s the front and none of them will be able to get there. So they will be pissed. Pissed off children with access is never a good idea. And the only actual thing we can do is wait for him to stroke out, because our politics is broken. Republicans have been breaking it for my entire 70 yrs. And now they are going balls to the wall because they know that they are kindergarteners with access and their time is limited.
I hate that I’m hoping that someone has a stroke. Even this shit head.
Happy 4th of July.
Ruckus
@mad citizen:
Our country is dependent upon all of us doing our duty. And the way it’s structured has actually kept that from happening. Of course it took some interference from a foreign country which is run by a man who has made his billions by subterfuge and theft of his countries natural resources. Sound at all familiar to our uber wealthy?
I wrote above that I’ve been watching Netflix and was working today. But I’ve also been thinking a long time now about this country and my life in it. I’m older, I’m aging and while I’m not doing badly, I’m on that downhill run now. That’s how it goes, none of us know how long that run will be of course and we all want it to be as long as possible but it’s still downhill. I’d like to leave this rock better than I found it, better for others, better for everyone. Off the top of my head I have no real idea how to do that, but it’s what I would like to leave when I go, no matter how far away that is.
One way might be to use real language. drumpf is a shit head, an asshole, a fucking bastard……. He’s leaving our country far worse than it has been, by his concepts of wrong and himself. By his total incompetence as a human being. Do we hold our breaths and hope that it doesn’t implode by the shear weight of his idiocy? Right now I see no other way, because that is the country/government we have. Impeachment won’t work, it’s a fools game to try and play it now. It may be a fools game from here on out, we’ve become a country that isn’t just run by politics, but governed by two drastically opposite political concepts. And we know which is a successful governing option and which isn’t. How do we help to make the other side less about fucking up everything they touch so that we don’t have to come in every 4-8 yrs and patch it back to a semblance of a functional government? How do we get back to having a functional government?
patroclus
I have to say that #RevolutionaryWarAirportStories is literally the funniest twitter thread I have ever read!
donnah
I wish that Trump could understand that no matter what size crowd he draws, Obama would double or triple it. That alone would drive him over the edge.
Betty
@Ruckus: I appreciate your concern. We face very challenging times and have to hope that enough people see the danger and respond appropriately. It will never be all of them.
JanieM
@Ruckus: @Ruckus: Thread may be dead, but if you see this: these are great comments, thank you. I’d like to tag along after them, but what I’d be trying to say would take all day, so it’s not going to happen right now.
In brief: I think a lot about this:
I have no idea what the answer is, maybe the depressing answer is: human nature being what it is, we will never get off this pendulum…at best, where worst would be if it got stuck (semi-)permanently in the wrong direction; and certainly millions of people over the centuries have spent their entire lives on the brunt end of the wrong direction — in that sense I consider myself and most of us here very lucky.
As I’ve maybe written here before, as an illustration of my own befuddlement: when I tried out a UU many church years ago, a woman got up at “Joys and Concerns” and made an impassioned speech about how “We have to do something about Bosnia.” I just sat there and wondered what I was supposed to do about Bosnia, given that I couldn’t even figure out how to get my kids to stop squabbling.
But I keep plugging away, giving a little money, volunteering where I can. I’m within a year or so of your age, so I too am on my outward/downward run.
From Wendell Berry’s “Manifesto: Mad Farmer Liberation Front”: “Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.”
mad citizen
Ruckus, yes I’m also reading this thread the morning after, and really appreciate yours and JanieM’s comments. I’m 58, so have also been reflecting on our nation’s journey a lot lately. I finished Kamala’s book this morning. Although she is my favored candidate, I’ve been thinking lately about how all four of the women Senators are really smart people and perhaps more importantly just super hard workers. Getting back to Ruckus’ point, I think these four are particularly plain spoken and will wake our country up.
Gary K
To be fair, there must be some Trump speech that was “the best speech Donald Trump has ever given.” And maybe it was this one, who knows? I’m never going to find out.