Donald Trump has ordered his military to stage a parade. This is not normal in America, but it is normal in dictatorships across the world and throughout history. Here are a few examples to give you a flavor.
Mussolini Military Parade, Italy, 1936
Hitler Military Parade, Germany, 1938
Saddam Hussein Military Parade, Iraq
Assad Military Parade, Syria
Stalin Military Parade, USSR, 1945
Gaddafi Military Parade, Libya
Mobudu Sese Seku Military Parade, Congo/Zaire
Mao Military Parade, China
Kim Jong Un Military Parade, North Korea
Id Amin Military Parade
Francisco Franco Military Parade
Nicolae Ceausescu “Hell March” Military Parade
Sadat Military Parade (Note: Sadat was not a dictator, but his last military parade was a notable historic event)
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https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/military-refuses-to-participate-in-trumps-parade-citing-bone-spurs
“Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
From Imperium, by Ryszard Kapuscinski.
Three plagues, three contagions, threaten the world.
The first is the plague of nationalism.
The second is the plague of racism.
The third is the plague of religious fundamentalism.
All three share one trait, a common denominator – an agressive, all-powerful, total irrationality.
Anyone stricken with one of these plagues is beyond reason.
In his head burns a sacred pyre that awaits only its sacrificial victims.
Every attempt to calm conversation will fail. He doesn’t want a conversation, but a declaration that you agree with him, admit that he is right, join the cause.
Otherwise you have no significance in his eyes, you do not exist, for you count only if you are a tool, an instrument, a weapon.
There are no people – there is only the cause.
A mind touched by such a contagion is a closed mind, one dimensional, monothematic, spinning round one subject only – its enemy.
Thinking about our enemy sustains us, allows us to exist.
That is why enemy is always present, is always with us.
Thanks for that great summary on fascist regimes, SteveP. I have no doubt that if the system allowed El Trumpo to turn the US into a fascist state, he would; most of the indicators you listed are there already.
Greg sez ” This is not normal in America”
When you mob have a grand final football match, what flies over? A Cessna with some wealthy tourists on board???? Migrating birds????
Nah, its some military show. Interluding into some poxy sport for no reason whatsoever.
And i believe its been happening for a long time and is considered ” normal ” in usa culture.
You left out the ones with President Eisenhower.
Rachel Maddow before her htyperventilating now was actually calling for a military parade in DC a few years ago.
There have been a few parades that weren’t celebrating the successful end of a war – Eisenhower’s inauguration featured one, but outside of that not, as people have recognized that displays like that accomplish nothing other than comparisons to dictatorial regimes and cults of personality.
The real problem for me is hearing some people object because ‘the military is already strapped for cash’ — there may be more current lines of bullshit floating around from the right (the Nunes memo, the uranium (non) scandal) but none as large as “the military is strapped for cash”.
Yes, but (as you dishonestly omit) for an immensely different reason: to honor the men and women who fought in Iraq. Trump wants a parade to put himself on the world stage.
JFK’s inauguration.
http://c10.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/image4.png
>to honor the men and women who fought in Iraq. Trump wants a parade to put himself
Yes, you are against the parade because Trump. It is just a thought crime to have one.
Thought crime? Wow, the inanity you go to.
First, you’re making the assumption that I (or others) would not be against a military parade at an inauguration, something not at all in evidence – or true for me.
Second, you made the assertion, by omission, that a parade to stroke the ego of a draft dodger is equivalent to having one to honor men and women who actually put lives on the line. Trump’s idea is purely masturbatory self promotion.
Third, you’re assuming I would have been fine with the type of parade she suggested. I wouldn’t have been. The money would be better spent providing medical and psychological help to the veterans who need it.
You also ignore the fact the those calls were to point out that in spite of the politicians’ repeated statements of gratitude for the military they weren’t doing shit in terms of substance to demonstrate that gratitude: even a parade was too much to ask of them.
You’ve been twisting yourself in knots distorting facts and flat out lying to make something of the nothings the Nunes memo, the “conspiracy” about inauguration size, and the uranium crap have turned out to be. Try to use a little rational thought for once.
I have to say, MikeN, that your relentless defence of Trump is both horrible and utterly perplexing to watch. Like someone repeatedly sitting down on a rusting iron spike. You want to stop them. You cannot understand why they would possibly do such an obviously insane thing. You are forced to conclude that they have lost their reason.
“… strapped for cash. ”
Thats so friggen insane.
By god, the resources militaries get ( not just usa , but especially usa ) is sick.
Fuck knows what the weekly bill is to maintain each arsehole nuke.
As an aside, if some scientist working for a military is reading this, and you put your intellect into working out more better ways to burn people alive or break perfectly good bones, get sincerely fucked.
Don’t expect El Trumpo’s imbecilic devotees to understand context.
Consider the data: the people Trump defended in Charlottesville , the killer that was among them: MikeN claims he didn’t do it.
Consider the previous president Trump blames for all the woes in the country: MikeN is more extreme in casting everything he did as wrong.
The reason for the defense of the shit stain currently in the White House is obvious: same world views.
>MikeN claims he didn’t do it.
Nope. I made a smaller claim that it wasn’t his car that hit the crowd, ie he didn’t drive into the crowd of protesters, except for people between his car and the second car , and when he reversed, which isn’t the crowd people have in mind. Look at video makes this clear.
It is also possible he did not have murderous intent, but I see the police have submitted evidence not available to the public on that.
Saying he wasn’t responsible is saying he didn’t so it. Denying what the video clearly shows is something altogether worse.
So in your opinion, this is Fields’s car hitting the crowd in the drone video?
https://media.tmz.com/2017/08/14/081417-charlottesville-drone-footage-kal-1080×608.jpg
Speaking of egregious displays of authoritarian over-reach… America, wtf?!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/09/california-police-white-supremacists-counter-protest
Racist American cops colluding with white supremacists? They always have.
“Police found blood and flesh in the grill of his car.”
They showed, in court, video of him hitting the crowed. Defy facts all you want. Reality doesn’t care.
https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=6W74R&URI=http%3A%2F%2Fmobile.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F12%2F14%2Fus%2Fcharlottesville-fields-white-supremists.html
Simple question, is that his car in the picture I linked?
The murdering fascist was driving a Dodge Challenger which was BEHIND the vehicle in the picture you are using to lie about what happened. The Dodge reversed after the first impact and is therefore not in shot.
You unspeakable shit.
No MikeN, it was not. If you continue to insist it was, you need to explain why the police, their video, their people in their helicopter, and witnesses, are all wrong while you’re right.
I’m not even sure what we are arguing about then. I had two points,
1) I think the public perception is that it is his car in that picture.
2) I think he may not have had murderous intent.
1) If that is not the public perception, then I am satisfied.
2) I have seen evidence suggesting this, and people reported here other evidence to the contrary that the police have presented. Because of your comments I am no longer confident he had no murderous intent.
Up until now, I thought you were attacking me for claiming that it was not his car that drove into the crowd.
BBD, the car is not in the shot, because the building is in the way. It was actually the third car. Fields hit a car that hit the minivan.
Which changes nothing. He drove at the crowd, hit vehicles which were slammed into the crowd.
And you use silly misleading pix to pretend that this wasn’t deliberate.
Why?
The not deliberate murder argument is unrelated to that picture.
I don’t know if the woman who died was in the front or was hit between cars.
I say it is not deliberate based on other video that shows the hit from the back. It can be seen that his car was hit just prior, and he appears to be not speeding before getting hit.
Now the prosecution has introduced a different video that I haven’t seen that shows him reversing and then speeding up. If this is accurate, then he is guilty and being the front car or rear car is irrelevant.
If the prosecution is overstating the case, as has been known to happen, then he might be found not guilty. It is unlikely especially if they are leaving open lower charges, and it appears he has no lawyer.
I wish people would stop saying he drove into the crowd because I think it gives the impression he was the front car. There is no short alternative wording I can think of however.
He did drive into the crowd. In doing so, he shunted another vehicle which injured people in front of it. He is a murderer and will be found guilty in the face of abundant, unequivocal evidence. Your specious attempts to muddy the issue are off-the-scale repellent. I didn’t realise you were prepared to lickspittle for murderous white supremacists. There seems to be no limit to how low you will go.
BBD, if the crowd you are referring to is the people between his car and the other car, then yes. However, I think the public perception is that he drove into the crowd in the picture I posted. That his car is the minivan.
I prefer the description you gave, and wish the media would say something like that, even if it is longer.
If the woman was between his car and the other car, then driving into a crowd is acceptable.
As far as intent, if his intent was to kill people by smashing a minivan with his car and another car into a crowd, that is not a ‘good plan’. There were plenty of crowds nearby. I don’t think it would ever occur to me that I could do that much damage by running into a line of cars.
He did it deliberately. Nothing you can say changes that.
For the sick, lame, and lazy amongst you who can’t seem to connect the dots:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Let’s have a parade! I love the flag! You MUST stand for the anthem!
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – See for example Trumps attitude towards Mexicans, Haitians, Africans, Hispanics in general, Muslims, Puerto Rico, refugees and victims of war.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – See for example Trumps attitude towards Mexicans, Haitians, Africans, Hispanics in general, Muslims.
4. Supremacy of the Military – Let’s have an expensive parade! Let’s have it on soldier’s, sailor’s and airmen’s day off!
5. Rampant Sexism – See behaviors of Trump, Lewandowski, Porter, Sorensen, Ailes, O’Reilly, Wynn
6. Controlled Mass Media – Its all Fake News except for FOXist News.
7. Obsession with National Security – Let’s build a wall!
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – This is one of Trump’s weak links, but evangelicals are big into laying on hands, so he gets a pass and a boost from them if you know what I mean…
9. Corporate Power is Protected – Let’s have a tax break for corporations!
10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Bingo!
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Your PhD in atmospheric physics don’t mean shit to the Donald, and anything not gilded is not Art to the MacDonald.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Lock her up!
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Ivanka, Jared, MacDonald Jr., Trump International, Steve Wynn
14. Fraudulent Elections – Elections tainted by interference by Russian hacking and expert Russian analysis and trolling of susceptible populations on the internet.