An arms race for our attention

A long, long time ago, before “our” current President wanted to be BFF’s with the current Russian Dictator, I remember watching the news as a kid and seeing Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union presiding over military parades in Red Square in Moscow. These parades, much like the current North Korea spectacles, had one purpose and one purpose only, to scare the shit out of the rest of the world.

“Our” President wants a military parade, a big one with “tanks and stuff”. Conservative, CONSERVATIVE, estimates of what something like this would cost? Twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000). And what does my Senator, Lindsey Graham think about it? “I fully support President Trump’s decision to have an annual military parade honoring the best among us. It is long past time we have a national event saying ‘Thank You” to our men and women in uniform. They have been fighting so hard for so long to protect us.” No words.

Now I am not a veteran but many men in my family are including my father and father in-law. I can’t speak for either one of them but knowing them like I do I am pretty sure watching “tanks and stuff” tear-up the asphalt on Pennsylvania Ave. would not be their idea of money well spent to honor our “men and women in uniform”. I would suspect both of them would prefer to see $22,000,000 spent on VA health care, and family support services rather than giving Commander Bone Spurs the chance to one-up Kim Jong-un and do his best Vladimir Putin impression.

Maybe its just me but has anyone else noticed how much “our” President likes to spend our money? Do any of you remember this line from our Supreme Leader; “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf.” There is a website (you knew there had to be) called TRUMP GOLF COUNT that keeps track of all the golf Trump has played since he as been in office and what it has cost you and I. Are you ready for it? TRUMP GOLF COUNT estimates the tab to be $50,860,444, almost $51 million dollars, in just ONE YEAR! I don’t know about you but if I could get my hands on just 1% of $51 million dollars things would be a lot less stressful around my house.

Trump is in an arms race, not for weapons, but for our attention. There is just one reason for proposing stupid shit like a military parade with “tanks and stuff”, to change the news cycle. “Let’s see if I can get the “Fake News” to quit talking about the Russia investigation for ten minutes”, is his thinking. I sure Rachel Maddow will talk about “tanks and stuff” tonight but I can also promise you she won’t spend 1/16th of the amount of time Sean Hannity will spend on it. At this point Trump and Hannity are just throwing wet spaghetti up against the wall to see what sticks and gets the most attention. What can we expect from Trump in the coming months, lots more wet spaghetti and golf.