Apparently the D.C. fireworks caused so much pollution that the concentration of PM 2.5 in one part of the city was the worst in the country afterward. https://t.co/KyFRQ7OBQW
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) July 5, 2019
… not even a fireworks display on the Fourth of July.
Also from the Washington Post (paper of record for the company town whose monopoly industry is national politics), “Evening in America: What it felt like on Trump’s Fourth of July”:
From the president’s vantage point, his supporters looked like they were in cages. Their fingers curled around chain-link. Bellies smushed against butts. When their knees gave out, they sat on ponchos and muddy blankets and squares of wet cardboard. The air, scented by sodden socks and bug spray, sagged with humidity. When the breeze picked up, so did the sensation that everything was surrounded by a battalion of toilets. It was difficult to move, to escape, but then no one was trying to do so. They were grateful to be here, soaked by hours of drizzle, hugged by a lazy heat, waiting hours and hours for him, for the show. The president had invited them to express their love of country in a maze of corrals, on a truly crappy day of weather, but they didn’t feel like prisoners of pomp or slaves to circumstance but jubilant pilgrims thrilled to be counted as citizens of the “most just and virtuous republic ever conceived,” as the president put it…
Trump’s been doing this kind of thing for years, though never with the U.S. military as his production team. In April 1990, when he opened the doomed Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, a 43-year-old Donald Trump arranged 5½ minutes of fireworks that were half-obscured by his own building, insinuated that he had cured a disabled guest of honor and — after his podium spittled theatrical fog — told the crowd to “have a nice life.” (His business would file for bankruptcy the following year.)…
The Lord sent a storm, thunder, winds, then said "fuck yo teleprompter", just in case his message wasn't truly received
#trumpparadefail pic.twitter.com/hbSefxSUY5
— T. Fisher King (@T_FisherKing) July 5, 2019
Russia's state TV is obsessively bashing Trump's "low energy," "weak" parade with "rusty tanks." The hosts LOL at Trump's claim about "revolutionary war airports" & other historical flubs. "There's your city upon a hill, there's your world leader—and Martians have been defeated." pic.twitter.com/wiw2OcFCLN
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) July 5, 2019
No. They've been consistently bashing him. He never dares to respond.https://t.co/0dh6Z4Rekv
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) July 5, 2019
Maybe Trump could get the hint that trying to be Russia lite isn't really going to work out so well. https://t.co/LXviRmw1er
— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 6, 2019
.
Martin
Of course…
The chants of ‘Fuck Trump’ at the sports bar in Lyon was a nice touch.
meander
Just around the corner, how is Trump going to f*ck up the 50th anniversary of the moon landing? Insult the astronauts? Use Twitter to reshape NASA’s mission w/o consulting the agency’s leadership? The possibilities are endless!
Plato
Q: Has the President congratulated them yet?
A: Yes
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
All this winning really sucks.
Ruckus
And maybe pigs can fly. But neither has happened yet.
Besides, what else is he going to do for his owners?
Jharp
@Martin:
The chants of ‘Fuck Trump’ at the sports bar in Lyon was a nice touch.
Mike in NC
@Martin: Evidently “Fuck Trump” is a handy little phrase that needs no translation to other languages.
Ken
@Mike in NC: Like “OK”. Three words that everyone in the world understands, and one of them has to be “Trump”.
dmsilev
@Martin: On Fox News, no less. Let’s hope he was watching it live.
Hoodie
The Russians play him like a violin. He is a perfect asset, because he will always put his ego above the strategic interests of the US. The criticism of his little parade will make him overcompensate and do something strategically stupid. That’s exactly what has happened with Iran. Years of hard work pissed away so this asshole can think he’s getting back at Obama for making fun of him at the WH Correspondents Dinner. So, he fucks the entire country and our allies in the process. The Iranians are not going to make a new deal with him because they know he can’t be trusted.
Plato
Baud
@Plato:
I’d settle for one who’s as dumb as a brick.
Plato
zhena gogolia
But on planet Earth, his approval ratings are up.
trollhattan
In case you thought mPinoe could not be any more awesome–and who could think such a thing?–she does this in the middle of the tournament.
Plato
@Baud:
So much winning, so sick of all the winning.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@zhena gogolia: Meh. That very same poll had him losing to Biden by 14 points.
Martin
@Mike in NC: Like the ‘Equal Pay’ chants, it was in unaccented English. Those were Americans shouting that.
Chris T.
@Martin: That’s not un-accented, that’s American-accented. (Exactly which American accent, I have no idea, I didn’t hear them.)
mrmoshpotato
@meander:
“Mike. Buzz. Where’s Neil?”
RandomMonster
@Hoodie:
While his ego is even more voluminous than his ass — and that’s saying something — what makes him the perfect asset is that the Russians have dirt on him. Lots and lots and lots of dirt.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: You want W back in office?
JPL
@mrmoshpotato: At least his wife could bring back some class in the White House.
BTW Kinda cool that the Soccer Team will be honored with a ticker tape parade. Much watch TV on Wednesday. I imagine trump is so jealous.
The Dangerman
@Plato:
Trump cost me some money here when HE personally congratulated the team; I figured he was going to let Melania’s congratulations stand alone and be a huge dick about the whole thing (Note, Donald: “be a”, not “have”) and congratulate personally right about the 5th of never.
I’ll assume some aide grabbed him by the short one (do they keep pliers and a blow torch in the White House?) to convince him that he couldn’t be that big of an asshole.
randy khan
We only saw the fireworks on TV, but someone who was watching them live said they really did get covered up by the smoke. Apparently because of the way the wind was blowing, the best view ended up being from the other side of the river, which is, ah, not optimal.
debbie
It was a pathetic show. Two tanks really represent the mightiest country in the world. //
Spanky
@debbie: The fact that a wanna be dictator could only pry two tanks out of the military after all his talk of a parade shows the world that he’s not in control yet.
Baud
@Spanky:
That, plus the fact that he is a laughing stock.
debbie
Someone’s fees fees are hurt.
Raven
@debbie: So is that picture fake?
debbie
@Raven:
It has to be, right? No fence or empty green spaces.
NotMax
Bargain basement Barnum.
Raven
West of the Rockies
@meander:
Well, going to the moon was his idea… That’s what a lot of people are saying, who knows.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I don’t know whether Trump will extend his invitation to visit the WH, which they’ve already preëmptively declined, but I’m pretty sure I saw a report that AOC has invited the team to visit Capitol Hill as her guests, which they immediately accepted.
I shall drift off to sleep tonight happy in the memory of the sports bar crowd in Lyon chanting “Fuck Trump! Fuck Trump!” for the Fox News/Fox Sports cameras. That was one of those little moments of sheer perfection.
debbie
@Raven:
I don’t know. There’s a faint line that is the fence, and the people in the “filled-in area” in front of the fence on both sides match each other but are wearing different colors than the rest of the crowd. I don’t remember seeing that front area filled in until now. I’m suspicious. Getty, Schmetty.
sukabi
@Mike in NC: more countries are multi-lingual and English is very commonly spoken.
Also, think that was a bar where Americans were hanging out, sooooo….Americans were chanting Fuck Trump too.
sukabi
@The Dangerman: or, one of his aids grabbed his phone and congratulated on his behalf.
opiejeanne
@meander: Maybe Buzz Aldrin will haul off and punch him in the snoot. If he’s quick the Secret Service won’t be able to stop him.
opiejeanne
@Mike in NC: Those were Americans in that bar, but you’re probably right.
opiejeanne
@Plato: You know what’s wrong with that? She was answering a question asked by a reporter when she said “Fuck no, I’m not going to the White House!”
Jay
@meander:
He’s going to praise the Nazi Scientists and the Concentration Camp labour that made it all possible as “very good science on both sides”.
And how Space Force’s captures of Nazi Rockets made it all possibe.
Martin
@Chris T.: Unaccented to our ear. Accents are always relative to something.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Ya don’t piss off Buzz.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Raven: Source? I didn’t see any similar pics over at Getty(I used “Trump 4th of July” as a search term).
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Soccer is very popular here so I watched at a packed sports bar. Title IX allowed this to happen and I’m so happy for the team. The asshole in chief is gonna be so jealous on Wednesday when the team has their parade.
SiubhanDuinne
@sukabi:
That’s what I thought. After the burn Megan threw at him the other day, I very much doubt he would give the team a sincere congratulations.
Ruckus
@debbie:
I blew up the image as much as I could and the foreground looks real. But no other pictures I’ve seen show any where near that many people between the fence in the middle of the pool towards the podium. And there are people packed by the reflecting pool beyond the middle fence and way beyond Washington Monument that are all in the same color clothes. Those between the fence in the middle of the pool and the podium all have a lot of color to them. You can blow it up to see the colors well but not to see specifically if they are actual people.
Still, I’m calling fake.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
It will be a lovely thing. I’m so happy for the US women! They refuse to let Trump spoil their moment.
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: In one Washington Post poll, which for some reason got passed all around, I guess because they used a dramatic “best ever” headline. 538 shows his approval flat as usual.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: No way he wrote that tweet. It was two hours after their win and someone said look at your poll numbers.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Snopes rates the photo as “true,” and while she’s cited as an AP photographer, she’s done work for the Washington Times.
JPL
@Matt McIrvin: Unfortunately, the hoopla can artificially raise his numbers next time.
JPL
@debbie: Because of the airport fiasco, the news didn’t mention that we paid for tanks and other military equipment to placed in an area only his donors could see. That actually really upset me, because if we are going to waste are money doing that, shouldn’t all be able to see them.
trnc
@RandomMonster:
I bet the NY AG does too.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
What’s wrong with that? She was in a locker room at the time.
Matt McIrvin
@JPL: Eh, there have been many of these headlines before, whenever some poll gets a big outlier–nobody remembers them a couple of weeks later.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: It’s probably real.
E.g. Getty – it’s not the same, but there are clearly a lot of people there.
One thing to remember – there isn’t really a lot of room between the Reflecting Pool and the trees. And there’s lots of room under the trees. There could be 100,000 people there, or 3/4M and the pictures would look about the same.
It was a good-sized crowd, but note that the packing is much higher on the fence side than outside. And supposedly there were 5000 tickets for the fence side… (At least that’s my recollection.) Since there were only 2 Jumbotrons (IIRC), most of the people there were probably not under the trees.
Debunking Donnie’s stuff is playing on his turf. It’s not good for us to spend too much time on it.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@JPL: Not to worry. I’m sure the FEC will rule that it was a campaign rally and make him pay the money back.
Haha. I crack me up sometimes. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
opiejeanne
@Jay: What’s wrong is the implication that SHE was just idly bragging about how they would win it all and then not go to the WH.
I hope that makes sense. It was her answer to a question by a reporter, and there was not a thing wrong with her answer, only the assumption that she was being an uppity woman and how dare she brag like that.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Mysogeny knows no bounds.
They one it all,
If you get a chance, ask her for PowerBall numbers picks. Better odds than nothing.
OldDave
@The Dangerman: Take another look at Plato’s twitter quote. That wasn’t Donald with the praise.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Totally agree.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: The pics I did see on Getty showed alot of folk by the reflecting pool and few under and past the trees.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
The photo just doesn’t look right. I worked in professional sports and used to try to guess crowd sizes and was pretty good at it. For the reported number of people, the weather, the obvious coloration differences, all the other photos I’ve seen from behind the fence in the middle of the pool, the fence in the middle of the pool itself, the fact that the crowd is packed from the mid pool fence to way beyond the Washington Monument and there are actually lots of open seats in the seating area right in front of the podium….. It all just doesn’t add up.
I also looked at the Getty Images site, searched July 4, 2019, Washington DC and got 15 pages of images. There were images taken from the same vantage point but they didn’t match the photo shown in that tweet.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I would agree that elements of the photo are real, just not the actual photo.
That job in professional sports had me using Photoshop and Illustrator regularly, and from stock photos and the ones on Getty images making that one would be a snap.
I also agree that spending too much time trying to show that drumpf and his supporters are being honest is a waste of time and effort, we already know he and they do lie as easily as they breathe. But I’ve wasted only a few minutes of a semi retired old farts time so no big deal. Better than watching TV.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: The day is long this time of year. Pictures were taken all day (nearly 15 hours of daylight), thunderstorms came and went, etc., etc.
More Getty pictures – searching for ‘washington dc july 4 trump.
FWIW. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
Torture children, rape women, insult allies, suck up to Putin and joke with him about killing journalists.
It’s all okay as long as Wall Street’s happy.
oatler.
“Oh, they’ve quit eating wood,” he said, in a casual voice,
“I thought everybody knew that.”
—and, reaching down,
He pried from the insect jaws the bright crumb of steel.
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Trump would count the reflections. Voilà! Doublé!
Eric S.
@Raven: It looks real to me.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: OK, I see the Walsh photos now(guess I searched for 4th and not fourth).
JPL
@zhena gogolia: That is why we have to vote. That is why we have to convince our neighbors to vote. The only ones that are going to save us is ourselves. There is no Mueller time.
Also.. I did come up with a team I would support.
Harris/Brown
Tim Ryan was just so boring, but I do think Sherrod could bring the midwest home.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: Especially pale reflections.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: Sherrod would also be replaced by a Republican.
Joe Falco
I feel like it would be extremely easy to get Trump to implicate himself in the Epstein child sex scandal by telling him the following:
“So I heard you were never invited to Jeffrey’s child sex parties because you weren’t rich and famous enough.”
His all-consuming narcissism will take over at that point.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Not necessarily If the dems carry Ohio, that could help a dem candidate for Senate.
Nicole
If all anyone saw of the Fox clip from Lyon was the “Fuck Trump” bit, I strongly recommend watching the clip in this link. It got better:
https://deadspin.com/live-fox-news-report-about-world-cup-win-interrupted-by-1836167457
(apologies if it’s been posted already)
zhena gogolia
@Nicole:
Good for them.
JPL
@Nicole: It can never be shown enough.
Bill Arnold
On a positive note, D.J. Trump is complaining about Fox News again. 3-tweet thread:
Anne Laurie
@oatler.:
You make me very happy that someone else remembers Steve Vincent Benet! His Nightmare poems actually scared me into screaming dreams, when I first read them, age around 9 or 10…
You will not be saved By General Motors or the prefabricated house.
You will not be saved by dialectic materialism or the Lambeth conference.
You will not be saved by Vitamin D or the expanding universe.
In fact, you will not be saved.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: Bird in the hand…
randy khan
@debbie:
The photo isn’t so much fake as deceptive. I’ve seen a shot from the reverse angle, and the space is not nearly that filled in – you can see green patches in it. And the space there isn’t really that big by comparison to, oh, the Mall or the Washington Monument grounds. Leaving aside the Reflecting Pool, which takes up a huge chunk of the space, it’s also significantly narrower than the Mall because of the trees on either side. Still, it was a decent crowd, probably in part because a certain percentage of Administration and Republican apparatchiks felt they had to show up and because they reportedly handed out 5,000 tickets to local military people.
But by comparison to, oh, how many people probably were on the Washington Monument grounds, it probably wasn’t that big a group. If experience is any guide (and that’s personal experience from going there for many years), the number of people in the usual fireworks viewing area was some multiple of the number of people on the Lincoln Memorial grounds.
Edited to add: I’m basing this on the photo that Snopes is showing, which does have some significant bits of open space in the foreground. The comments seem to suggest that there could be another photo out there, so here’s the link to Snopes: Take a look
Villago Delenda Est
You have to remember that the fireworks fiasco was brought to you by the same man who wanted to install marble countertops in the lavatories of his shuttle planes.
He knows nothing about anything.
debbie
@Nicole:
Nice!
RandomMonster
@trnc:
Here’s hopin’
debbie
@randy khan:
Yes, I also saw photos from the reverse angle and at ground level, and there were significant empty, grassy areas. I think the deception is due to the foreshortening from the higher angle.
randy khan
@Ruckus:
I don’t know what photo you’re looking at, but anyone beyond the Washington Monument wouldn’t have been able to see or hear Trump, and was there for the fireworks. The biggest part of the crowd would have been on the downslope on the other side of the Washington Monument. (The Mall, which is what you see past the Monument, is a mile away from the Lincoln.)
Also, you can clearly see the hideous WWII memorial, which would have been at least partly obscured if the crowd had extended that far back.
joel hanes
@Anne Laurie:
you will not be saved
https://jackchick.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/chick-parody-who-will-be-eaten-first/
RAVEN
Snopes
Does This Photo Show the Crowd at Trump’s 4th of July Event?
Plenty of people showed up to celebrate Independence Day with U.S. President Donald Trump despite inclement weather.
Villago Delenda Est
@RAVEN: Snopes destroys its own credibility. That photo is obviously ‘shopped. Look at the crowd midway up the reflecting pool to the left mysteriously standing IN the reflecting pool.
They’re all liars. Everyone in the Donald malassstration is a liar. It’s a job requirement.
Gin & Tonic
Finished off the weekend by spending the afternoon down by the water. Bay temps are up to about 65, so some time in the water, too. Chilly but manageable.
Uncle Cosmo
@Anne Laurie:
Randall Jarrell, “Song: Not There”
from Selected Poems (1955)
Duane
@Villago Delenda Est: Trumpov is like the boy who cried wolf. Even if he somehow told the truth (HA!) no one in their right mind believes the lying rat anymore.
plato
@Villago Delenda Est: Yup, it’s a mug’s game trying to prove/disprove the prolific liar’s lies.
Uncle Cosmo
@Anne Laurie: Metropolitan Nightmare
Chris Johnson
Nah man. He’s not OUR world leader. He’s YOUR world leader that ya stuck us with. Thanks so much for that :P
Seriously, blaming us, when you had to work so hard and spend a bunch of money and you’re STILL trying to keep that shit together. Suuuuure, it was all us. Gotcha.
Eunicecycle
@JPL: If Sherrod Brown were on a winning ticket as VP, our Republican governor would appoint a Republican to replace him. Since we really need to get the Senate, we probably can’t afford to have Sherrod on the ticket, much as I love him.
Mike G
@meander:
“Everyone knows the moon landings were fake. So congratulations, or whatever. Have a hamberder.”
Don K
@JPL:
There is no Senate election in Ohio next year. Brown was re-elected last year and Portman is up for re-election in 22, so the point stands that if Brown leaves the Senate he will be replaced by a Republican.
LongHairedWeirdo
Thing about the Russians bashing Trump, think about it.
1) it presents a fact that can be used to call further election interference into question. Putin could actually say “so, you see my friend, Trump, it’s a *favor* to you!”
2) it’s a double win for Putin – stooge in the White House, and his master stroke is apparent to everyone
3) it also helps provide cover for whatever else Trump and Putin are scheming about. And, no, you don’t get to say “Trump Derangement Syndrome” if someone notes that we really do expect Trump is hoping to get some personal goodies from Putin as a result of their special relationship; really, the big question is “is it only personal enrichment? And is he cagey enough to know what he *can’t* give Putin, because it’s too dangerous? Okay, we know the answer to that: no.”
Seriously, pause and think about that for a moment, and then ask why the GOP would be okay with that, if they cared about our national security? Don’t go tell me “Trump’s too stupid to spill the crown jewels, intelligence-wise” because we’re not worried about that; we’re worried he’ll explain that the metaphorical crown jewels are metaphorically being moved Tuesday night, and only HE will know the special signal that identifies the non-decoy, “which is really neat, I had them use the name of my next-door neighbor’s dog, which no one can guess!”