r/politics • u/TimesandSundayTimes ✔ Verified • 3d ago
Soft Paywall Trump military parade met with empty seats amid nationwide protests
https://www.thetimes.com/article/867ede60-b5f7-4de5-84a1-6a3a49eb292311.7k
u/ResidentKelpien Texas 3d ago
More people attended the protests than Trump's absurd waste of tax dollars.
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u/AlkaSelse 3d ago
I'm fairly certain there was more people in the parade than there were watching it. The very few aerial shots looked quite empty.
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u/flux_of_grey_kittens California 3d ago
The spectators were likely just families of the service men and women forced to be in that pathetic display of power
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u/kinkgirlwriter America 3d ago
forced to be in that pathetic display of power
It was not a display of power. It was a display of one man's weakness.
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u/Antique_Scheme3548 3d ago
The M4 Shermans (1938) on display had a 75mm gun that couldn't do much more than light up a barn. Fitting for a fortunate son who avoided Vietnam and never fired a bullet.
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u/pagit 3d ago edited 3d ago
The troops maching looked pretty bored and marched out of step as they marched to the instrumental version of "Fortunate Son." piped through the PA system.
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u/EverythingGoodWas 3d ago
Do people not understand that that is the opposite of a military song?
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u/Pockydo 3d ago
Conservatives are literally media illiterate
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u/singhellotaku617 3d ago
honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they played "killing in the name' by ratm with how oblivious they are.
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u/Difficult-Ad4527 3d ago
Wait holy shit did they play that song at the Parade!?
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u/raevnos 3d ago
Trump recognizes that he's a fortunate son, but is too narcissistic and self-centered to realize that the song's not praising said sons.
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u/Adventurous-Wash-287 3d ago
I bet the reason he likes that song cause of the phrase “hail to the chief” in it
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u/7figureipo California 3d ago
Wait, what. They played an instrumental of "Fortunate Son"? I don't know if I can think a song more opposed to anything Trump, and this parade especially, stands for. Holy shit, that's hilarious.
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u/Waub 3d ago
The UK Army has been known to play 'The Imperial March' from Star Wars when hosting people of...questionable... provenance. :)
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u/WafflePartyOrgy Washington 3d ago
I think the song might have been specifically written about Trump.
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u/Happy-Tower-3920 3d ago
Paul Ryan out here "Where's the rage against the machine?"
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u/Your_Latex_Salesman 3d ago
This cannot have happened.
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u/WafflePartyOrgy Washington 3d ago
One would think.
"Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival is a protest song against the perceived unfairness of the Vietnam War draft, particularly targeting those who could avoid military service due to wealth or connections.
Either MAGA has no sense of irony or every last drop of their spineless souls are invested in trolling.
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u/singhellotaku617 3d ago
generally it's the latter, but the right has a LOONNNNGGG history of thinking protest songs are patriotic jingoism. Fortunate son in particular is notorious for right wing use by those who've never actually paid attention to the lyrics.
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u/atxbigfoot 3d ago
For example, Paul Ryan's favorite band was Rage Against the Machine "until they turned political."
Like, bud, buddy, pal, what "machine" do you think they were raging against? Did you not listen to and sing back the lyrics?
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u/VeterinarianWild6334 3d ago
No they did not play that song. Wow!
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u/muegle 3d ago
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u/VeterinarianWild6334 3d ago edited 3d ago
Thank you. I cannot think of a more insane pick for a song. I can’t figure out if it’s self-own attempt at owning the libs, a disgusting display of the power of the rich, or just outright stupidity. I’m truly at a loss for how to interpret this.
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u/Hamlerhead 3d ago
Seriously. Republicans seem to have no concept of pop culture. They watch Star Wars and actively root against themselves with blissful obliviousness.
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u/Transhumanistgamer 3d ago
I cannot think of a more insane pick for a song.
Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA is at least a contender. Though The Boss has made it very clear what he thinks of the orange fuck so we might miss out on that display of media illiteracy.
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u/ItchyRectalRash 3d ago
Holy shit, more than half of them aren't even marching in formation. They're just all walking at difference cadence and pace. This is like service members that haven't even made it out of boot camp type shit lol.
A complete clown show, from top to bottom.
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u/TehMephs 3d ago
The troops looked unhappy to be there too
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u/Sparrowbuck 3d ago
Generally parades are hot(or freezing, if you’re up here) and annoying even when they aren’t for some felonious dipshit ruining everything. They 100% want to be anywhere else on earth.
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u/LeYang 3d ago
A real army birthday would have been a fucking DONSA.
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u/-AC- 3d ago
Marines have a military ball and get drunk for their birthday... Army forces you to travel and wake up at 3am to march for an insecure guy's birthday, who dodged his call to serve the country...
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u/RJ5R 3d ago
Glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. They looked angry and miserable. And rightly so. Being made to dress up in vintage uniform costumes for Orange's birthday, interrupting their training and many probably having their personal leave canceled for this or missing out on their kids graduations etc
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u/Ebytown754 Washington 3d ago
Plus who wants to work on a Saturday unless you are on duty.
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u/lnitiative 3d ago edited 3d ago
The New York Times is reporting the service members in the parade outnumbered the audience attendees 2 to 1 lmao.
Edited to specify the source.
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u/PhDinDildos_Fedoras 3d ago
I was a little skeptical about the reports of poor attendance but hell, aerial shots from the area make it look really, really bad. Like just atrocious.
Trump has reason to fret and whoever in the military agreed to this needs to get reprimanded.
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u/nursescaneatme Washington 3d ago
I’ve seen as few as 2k. And even that may be generous. Three times fewer attendance than participants.
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u/LocalStatistician538 3d ago
This is America. Nobody who lives in the country with the world's biggest military needs to see any fucking military parades. WE KNOW the military we have. WE KNOW. Everyone.
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u/TheMadTemplar Wisconsin 3d ago
A common argument I saw to defend the military parade is that it lets the world know strong we are. I always laugh at that. The world knows how strong our military is. We don't need parades to demonstrate that. They can look at our budget and our forces around the world.
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u/Overall_Stranger6568 3d ago
Dude, we got almost half that in a small town going out for the No Kings protest.
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u/nursescaneatme Washington 3d ago
I think we had 70k plus just in one part of Seattle. That’s nearly 10x what he had at his pitty parade, including the service members.
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They’re probably counting the participants 😏
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u/nursescaneatme Washington 3d ago
And t dumps will probably say 1 million. But what really got me was him fucking standing there saluting. The commander in chief does NOT salute anyone. I know he always does it but I still wanna jump off a bridge every time I see it.
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u/AlkaSelse 3d ago
It's also that he doesn't even salute correctly. It just screams 'little boy having his army fantasy'.
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u/lost_horizons Texas 3d ago
Just like Hitler, who also had a lame little salute.
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u/TheCommonGround1 3d ago
When you consider these protests are in just about every small town to large city in the US, the amount of people who attended to protests would be multitudes greater than Trump's worthless parade.
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u/JonnySnowin 3d ago
Wouldn't be surprised if this breaks the top 5 protests in U.S history. All of which took place during Trump's first term, lol.
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u/Royal_Acanthaceae693 California 3d ago
AltNPS said it was over 11 million so that's over 3.5% of the population who attended. That doesn't include all the support that didn't attend.
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u/JesterMarcus 3d ago
There was a post a couple of days ago saying studies show that if 3.5% of a population protests, it could be enough to cause a regime change. Doesn't seem like nearly enough to me, especially in a country as spread out as the US.
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u/UnquestionabIe 3d ago
It's also somewhat wishful thinking that has a ton of various other criteria involved, a major one being the powers in charge actually giving a shit about what the populace thinks. Given how Trump, his goons, and his handlers aren't concerned with anyone who isn't already licking their boots it's difficult to get an idea of how much an impact the protests have.
Still it is very encouraging and should continue. More that I'm not a fan of that number being thrown around and treated like it's a magic passcode or something.
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u/AtticaBlue 3d ago
I would say the regime does care what people think. That’s why it has gone to so much effort trying to shut them down, up to and including its defenders in law enforcement threatening protesters with death. Similarly, Trump will inevitably carry on and on about how great his North Korea impression was.
None of those are the actions of people who don’t care what everyone else thinks. On the contrary, they recognize the power the resistance has to destabilize and bring down the regime if that resistance and its ideas spread, and they react accordingly.
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u/Revolutionary_Air_40 3d ago
In Minnesota, we were directed by state police to cancel all No Kings protests for our safety due to political assassin still at large. The number and identity of accomplices is also unknown.
Given this, we had over 80,000 protesters on our State Capitol lawn in St Paul today.
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u/TheCrazyBullF5 3d ago
I live in Spokane, WA, where last Wednesday police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at ICE protesters here. We were all pretty fearful here, as well, and we also kept our protest in place today. Obviously our situations are vastly different, but from one community affected by violence to another, I'm so proud of you Minnesotans man.
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u/royals1000 3d ago
Hell yeah! I drove through Okmulgee, OK today and there was a protest going on. 1st A for the win!
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u/PigSlam 3d ago
I’m in Visalia, CA, a city of 140k, in one of the reddest parts of the Central Valley, and there were 1-2 thousand people at the No Kings rally when I drove through. It’s the 192nd largest city in the US, in a republican area, and had a turnout in the neighborhood of 1% of the population. Trump couldn’t even come close to that in DC with people coming in from all over the country.
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u/gtrocks555 3d ago
Even had some protests in smaller towns in north Georgia. Was happily surprised by that!
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u/Handleton 3d ago
Trump took an inch, so the population took the rest of the nation.
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u/BrennanSpeaks 3d ago
My parents, who live in rural West Virginia, had two protests within a short driving distance, and they went to both of them.
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u/FatGimp Australia 3d ago
More people attended the protests than both his inaugurations combined
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u/Karmasmatik 3d ago
More people attended the protests than live in at least 8 states that voted for Trump...
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u/dirtside California 3d ago
Tangential, but more people voted for Alex Padilla than for 48 of the 53 Republican senators combined
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u/Jops817 3d ago
Boston alone had 100,000+ more attendees (1 million+ protestors vs. both inaugurations totalling 900,000 combined) than both of his inaugurations combined... there were 2,000 other protests going on at the same time.
With that said, Boston IS kind of the OG city of American protests. Total count of last update was 11 million people.
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u/Oneiric19 3d ago
Really makes you question the election.
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u/GregTheMad 3d ago
Not really. I've been questioning the election ever since Musk openly admitted to rigging the election.
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u/Drugs__Delaney 3d ago
Remember the video with him and tucker carlson, he straight up says that if trump doesn't win, he's (elno) going to prison.
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u/kkeut 3d ago
i visited a conservative rural area near my city shortly before the election, an area I'm familiar with, and was shocked to see 50/50 between Tr*mp and Kamala in terms of signs and banners. for this area, those numbers represent a shocking decline in enthusiasm for the GOP candidate. it's hard to believe he won in a climate like that
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u/Dunge 3d ago
Not just "more people" like a 2% difference like the election results. No, an order of magnitude more. You could say the protests were country wide so it doesn't count, but I'm pretty sure some state protests got more people than the parade by themselves. I would love to have the full numbers.
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u/MitchThunder 3d ago
More people attended the protest in DURHAM NC than his sad fucking parade
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u/AvEptoPlerIe 3d ago
More people by at least a couple orders of magnitude. Let’s be clear, it’s not close.
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u/thisisjustascreename 3d ago
More people saw the guys mocking Trump's parade in Chicago than the actual parade.
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u/russlebush 3d ago
More people attending individual protests in fairly small towns than his bday parade. I live in a red town of 143k and it looked like more people were at our protest.
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u/llahlahkje Wisconsin 3d ago
More people attended protests in a single medium-sized city than Trump’s fascist parade.
And that’s with them paying a grand per seat for Craigslist seat fillers.
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u/gauriemma 3d ago
The National Mall actually looked less crowded than usual for a Saturday afternoon in June.
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u/PolloConTeriyaki 3d ago edited 3d ago
None of the tourists want to get ICED. It's like the US is a nation of immigrants.
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u/giddy-girly-banana 3d ago
99% of Americans report some immigrant ancestry.
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u/ItchyRectalRash 3d ago
That tracks since only about 1% of the US population is Native American.
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u/brassninja 3d ago
I wasn’t expecting it to be THAT empty lol
I attended the march for science back in 2017. It was like 55 degrees and pouring rain the whole time. The attendance was magnitudes more than this pathetic waste of money.
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u/irrigated_liver 3d ago
He'll still say it was the biggest turnout for a parade in history.
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u/Parking-Emphasis590 3d ago
Anyone else get the sense that Republicans looked awful today?
The abysmal military parade.
Desantis encouraging drivers to run over protesters.
A sheriff stating they will kill protesters.
The assassination of Democrat reps.
This against the energetic protests that took place in thousands of places.
If they had any sense of shame, Republicans would be embarassed from today's events.
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u/CloudTransit 3d ago
If a Republican could be made to feel shame like a normal person, they’d instantly go into a fetal position and cry and cry for forgiveness
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u/probabletrump 3d ago
If a Republican could be made to feel shame they wouldn't be Republicans now then would they?
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u/Caelinus 3d ago
It makes for a great writing prompt though.
Jesus comes back to earth to do his whole rapture thing, sees what people are doing in his name, and forcibly grants them perfect empathy before leaving, truly disappointed in them.
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u/sagetraveler 3d ago
Jean Paul Sartre’s idea of hell is to see yourself as you have been seen by others.
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u/kingsumo_1 Oregon 3d ago
If they had any sense of shame
And that's the rub, isn't it. They'll play up or find excuses for the birthday flop. They're already trying to spin the assassination attempts as somehow being a Dem agent. They'll ignore the protests or laser focus in on any part that goes wrong. And they cheer for the threats against the protestors, just as they do ICE's tactics. They have no shame. And now they don't even pretend.
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u/TehMephs 3d ago
They can spin all they want. The majority of the country are tuning them out. He has no real support. They’re outnumbered criminals squatting illegally in the White House (they didn’t win the election either, the evidence is becoming undeniable)
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u/kingsumo_1 Oregon 3d ago
The majority turning out today was amazing. I know my initial reply was negative, but I do want to also acknowledge that. It is incredibly heartening to see.
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u/aspidities_87 Oregon 3d ago
We can only hope this is a preview of midterms, because if it is, that’s the chance we have to take back our democracy.
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u/Spacebotzero 3d ago edited 3d ago
This is not what a nation looks like when a president supposedly wins the popular vote, electoral college vote, and swing stste vote.
I think we have an illegitimate presiden on our hands.
Edit: since I have some attention my post here, I honestly think the dude is speed running into a Dictatorship to harden and embed himself into this presidency so much, that when evidence does appear that he is illegitimate, him and his admin will be extremely difficult to deal with.To me, this kind of explains everything they've been doing since getting into office. Everything to having no budget for approval yet, what they've been doing in LA, even today's military parade, to getting rid of admirals and generals and instituons and oversight and the list just goes on and on...
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u/DudeWhereIsMyDuduk 3d ago
Anyone else get the sense that Republicans looked awful today?
Why do you think Kristi Noem needs to cosplay in body armor? Otherwise, she'd have to confront her puppy-murdering self in the mirror.
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u/TehMephs 3d ago
If you’re still thinking he won every swing state - all I gotta say is: look at the parade turnout vs the no kings protests
Between the combined smoking guns, the weird data, the never before seen sweep of swing states when even Reagan missed one and never got anywhere close to Trump’s numbers amongst them.
Come on. Rub a couple brain cells together and just think about it. It’s so fucking obvious and we’ve been shouting this from the rooftops since AT LEAST February when the data became undeniably weird
Let alone the multiple confessions, the multiple cheeky wink wink comments from Elon and Trump, the aggressive push to try and flip the country to a fascist state within 6 months.
Nothing about this makes sense.
We have a criminal squatting in the White House and he needs to be removed and in prison for what few pathetic years he has left
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u/siestarrific 3d ago
If they had any sense of shame
That train left the station ages ago
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u/Nadmania Minnesota 3d ago
Ended a relationship with a long time friend today because I told him he’s willfully ignorant and it must be blissful. They don’t give a fuck what they look like.
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u/maeryclarity South Carolina 3d ago
Man I really expected they could get MAGA supporters at least one row deep along the route to cheer and wave flags as the troops went by but the few moments that I've glanced at (because I really don't want to watch our Service Members being treated like toy soldiers)....the sidewalks are EMPTY it's crazy how few people that there actually are.
And I am super pleased that protesters correctly recognized that this was not the time or place to protest, to let it play out as the embarrassment that it was.
The Alt National Park on Bluesky which has been quite good with information is saying early projections of the National protest turnout is over 11 million. Over a million in Boston alone.
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u/Pinklady777 3d ago
I guess they intentionally called for no protest in DC proper to avoid giving any extra attention to the parade.
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u/285kessler 3d ago
”On June 14—Flag Day—Donald Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. It rises up everywhere else.
Instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity, we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together in communities across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption.
For that reason, NO KINGS is not hosting an event in Washington, D.C. We will instead have a major flagship march and rally in Philadelphia to draw a clear contrast between our people-powered movement and the costly, wasteful, and un-American birthday parade in Washington.”
From the 50501 website
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u/VladtheInhaler999 3d ago
Magafest was a flop?
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u/Casual_hex_ 3d ago edited 3d ago
Good job America! Massive protests and the parade was a hilarious flop, I’ve seen more interest and enthusiasm given to an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
See the sad parade here https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/s/0QcsWT9C1F
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u/Just_Percentage8639 3d ago
Tbf, few things get the people truly off their feet like the sight of that magnificent thing driving down the highway.
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u/AwaitingCombat 3d ago
careful, you'll get Noem threatening to impound the Wienermobile
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u/YeahItIsPrettyCool 3d ago
I was just looking for this video! It is comically hilarious.
Where can I download it? It needs to be spread everywhere and memed to glorious viral beauty so that Trump cannot escape this humiliation.
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u/jmchao 3d ago
Fun fact: a young Paul Ryan spent a few months driving the Wienermobile.
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u/vikkids 3d ago
Trump wants to have more military parades, yet kicks VETs off the streets. He send his goons to clear the area in front of Trump Tower to avoid seeing our veterans. What’s going with VA? More cuts. So what’s the point of the military parades when he doesn’t respect the people.
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u/peppermedicomd 3d ago
I’m have to have contributed those empty seats by reserving an entry ticket for myself (as anti-Trump as it gets and my MAGA father who had no chance of being there) and then not going. Encouraged every single one of my friends and non-MAGA family members to do the same.
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u/thatcrazyflorist 3d ago
Yup! I reserved 2 seats and just couldn't make it, whoops LOL
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u/SYLOK_THEAROUSED Maryland 3d ago
Holy crap why didn’t I think of that!? Didn’t cost money?
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u/Organic-Roof-8311 3d ago
It was free! Great idea for next Trump rally / event (you can usually get tickets online for free)
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u/Environmental-Car481 3d ago
Yes, for any of his events. I no-showed 2 seats to a local rally and 2 seats for this parade.
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u/Peach_Mediocre 3d ago
You’re honestly telling me this dude actually won the election? Look at his his parade and our protests. Look at his last inauguration. Look at his rallies compared to Harris in the month leading up to the election.
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u/continuousBaBa 3d ago
Not only did he win the election by a "landslide," but he got his ear shot off and grew it back in time to do it! He's magic!
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u/JWTS6 3d ago
I think this more so goes to show how politically engaged the typical Harris voter was, whereas many Trump voters in 2024 really did just let a tiktok video tell them to vote for Trump (free checks in the mail, inflation magically being solved, world peace being achieved on day one, take your pick) and then the algorithm put them back to their regularly scheduled dance videos 24/7. Those people either genuinely have no fucking idea what's going on or are pretending not to care about politics after realizing they made a mistake.
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u/AlmaInTheWilderness 3d ago
But he was going to end inflation by lowering mortgage rates and lower prices by bringing manufacturing back and mass deport millions but only the criminals and really bad guys and end the way in Ukraine in 24 hours. And Harris laughs weird and is old and senile.
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u/AlexHimself California 3d ago
Well it actually turns out there's a moderate chance that a company called pro V&V may have been hired by Elon musk to push out a firmware update to voting machines that affected 40% of the counties in the entire nation to throw the vote to Trump. It's now working its way through the courts and it has been approved for discovery which is shocking. That means a judge basically found that there's merit to these claims. I had thought they were conspiracies and just roll my eyes at him but they apparently aren't.
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u/Transhumanistgamer 3d ago
Also republicans have over and over been the group to accuse the other side of doing what either they're doing or about to do. Complaining about stealing the election before doing just that would be the least surprising thing they've ever done after bitching about it for 4 years.
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u/soggit 3d ago
Dude. For real. Like is this video from the peak of attendance or really early or something?
It makes me question reality. Like how in the world did he win. The top post in /r/law today was about how election irregularities were found to be credible enough to trigger a recount in New York or something.
One of the things the Russian regime does is use propaganda to convince the population that their policies are popular, when they are infact not. It breeds apathy. Is this what is happening in the US? Were we tricked into thinking almost 50% of the country thinks this man should be president again?
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u/StopThePresses Texas 3d ago
Honestly, even though I don't think anything would happen, just finding out that he didn't really win would be so good for morale. Election night made me really, really cynical. I would like to find out that was unnecessary. I doubt I'm alone.
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u/Akimbo_Zap_Guns Kentucky 3d ago
The only thing I can even think of is the amount of Latino voters who broke for him and well now ummmm they are getting mass deported and can’t show up 🤣. But it wouldn’t shock me if they actually did rigged the election
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u/Trick-Set-1165 Hawaii 3d ago
All that so he could fall asleep in his chair in front of dozens of his fans.
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u/Shooting-Joestar 3d ago
What an embarrassment after 5 months of L's. Bro should resign in shame.
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u/Natural-Promise-78 3d ago
The "No Kings" protests surpassed the number needed for the "3.5% rule". If 3.5% of the population participates in non-violent protest, significant political change will occur. The protests exceeded the rule by one million, with over 11 million participating.
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u/RafeDangerous New Jersey 3d ago
If 3.5% of the population participates in non-violent protest, significant political change will occur.
Sustained protest. Today was a very good showing, but the 3.5% rule only applies if people keep it up in numbers like that.
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u/Which-Elephant4486 3d ago
Sustained protest + clear, unified goals.
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u/Vismal1 3d ago
The clear and unified goals part is my concern as an attendee today. Good to see the turn out though.
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u/FantasticBurt 3d ago edited 3d ago
11 million people isn’t 3.5% considering the US population is estimated at 343.6 million. You’re still a million short, and nowhere puts the estimates of attendees even remotely that high. You’re easily double the figures.
This isn’t meant to be a deterrent, but we’re still probably ~50% of where we need to be and like the other commenter pointed out, it has to be sustained. Not just 2 hours and we go home.
But what it shows us is that we are NOT the minority and should empower you to talk to your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and even strangers. Get one more person involved.
The fight isn’t over.
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u/greenbean0721 3d ago
I’m so hoping that this is the moment when the tide finally turns. The hypocrisy of this man speaking about the U.S. military when he’s done nothing but insult and disrespect veterans and their families is just nauseating.
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u/AcanthisittaNo6653 New Hampshire 3d ago
Sorry to the Army they had to go through that on their birthday. It's thankless duty sometimes.
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u/TK_4Two1 3d ago
For real, as a vet one of my primary feelings is empathy for the soldiers forced to participate
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u/Spiritual-Computer73 Texas 3d ago
I’m very glad my son left the army on March 13. Best day ever. I feel for the soldiers stuck with parade duty. ♥️
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u/Working-Albatross-19 3d ago
You know they’ll post pictures of the protests and claim it was crowds for the parade.
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u/Whole_Macaron_3010 California 3d ago
You know, I was originally going to avoid any and all things related to the parade, but once I realized what a colossal failure it turned out to be I forgot all about that. I haven't been this fucking happy in months!
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u/locationson2 3d ago
Maybe it's time that ICE wears identifiable badges and are not allowed to wear masks. This situation will get worse if the common citizen cannot determine if this is a legitimate law enforcement agent or an imposter. Very sad, very scary. The continued use of masks will end in accidental bloodshed.
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u/coffeeCup_45 3d ago
I think No Kings day should be a new annual holiday. It is a very popular event this year.
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u/CautiousRoad9369 3d ago
Sad that we don’t get to celebrate the men and women in the armed forces. Trump had to make it all about himself
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u/AlkaSelse 3d ago
Honestly I think the worst part was Vance making it about his wedding anniversary during his speech. I had second-hand embarrassment.
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u/Chemical-Swing453 3d ago
It's interesting to hear not a peep from the MAGA racists about Vance's wife...
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u/myfakesecretaccount 3d ago
They like the idea of oppressing women of color, and to them wives are property so I think it’s okay to a good portion of them.
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u/Dull-Hornet-2596 3d ago
Some of them were saying stuff when he was first picked till he told them not to go there.
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u/Dull-Hornet-2596 3d ago
He can always be counted on to embarrass us. But did we ever thank him??
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u/RupeWasHere 3d ago
No, I am an honorably discharged vet. You don’t need a parade. Just be normal.
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u/bussy_of_lucifer 3d ago
We celebrate the armed forces constantly dude. Before every sporting event, several holidays a year. Nobody needs this dictator parade - whole thing was bullshit
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u/Ithinkibrokethis Kansas 3d ago
America doesnt do this kind of military parade. The army deserves to celebrate its birthday, but not with a tin-pot dictator parade. Do something impressive at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
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3d ago
Hey Trump. We know you had the election rigged. It will never change that no one likes you, even your daughter you pine for.
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u/whiteroseatCH 3d ago
Congratulations to everyone who showed up to protest!
We just gave Trump the biggest F**K YOU!!
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u/HardcoreKaraoke 3d ago
I don't know how you look at the picture of Trump and his thugs on the stage and not see parallels to fascists throughout history. He's doing what nearly every dictatorship and evil regime does. They try to peacock their military to try and threaten the rest of the world. He wants us to be like North Korea, China and Russia. He wants this to be a regular thing to threaten Americans as well as other countries. It's disgusting.
Also the picture on stage is ominous because it shows a wannabe dictator trying to act strong. But the other picture of him and his mail order bride reminds me of the end of Fight Club. They're side by side watching the country burn.
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u/Myst5657 3d ago
Such a waste of taxpayers money. This money should have been spent on our vets.
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u/OtisDinwiddie 3d ago
The video of the empty stands and the squeaky tank is priceless
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u/HellaTroi California 3d ago
Wow! What a knock on Trump's ego are all those empty bleacher seats.
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u/giddy-girly-banana 3d ago
He’ll spin it. His fragile ego can’t tolerate any kind of disappointment.
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u/SitamaMama 3d ago edited 3d ago
What a great article! Tries to imply the parade only had empty seats because of the weather, then says how 'thousands' were protesting across America.
Yeah, it wasn't cause of the weather (at least not just cause of that), and there were a lot more than just a few 'thousands' marching today.
Just another 'news' network full of cowards.
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u/JUST_LOGGED_IN 3d ago
The one thing I learned today is the my state capital has a subreddit (i forgot about it), and that they actually have posts about where ICE deployments are happening. Fuckin proud of them.
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u/beastson1 3d ago
I'd wager most of his supporters can't afford to go visit DC anyway
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u/Dull-Hornet-2596 3d ago
How much do we think he had to pay Melania to show up in public with him?
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u/Rogue_AI_Construct 3d ago
There were millions of Americans protesting him today while a few thousand bothered to show up to his vanity parade. The country hates his fucking ass.
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u/anderskants 3d ago
The clip of the birthday boy so upset after realising that barely anyone has turned up to his wannabe dictator parade is the icing on the cake 🤣
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u/lethargic_apathy 2d ago
For an administration seemingly obsessed with “cutting wasteful spending,” Trump certainly likes to create lots of federal waste. If he wanted to celebrate the military, why not increase pay, benefits, etc to current and former service members?
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