CARTOON: Trump's Birthday Present To Himself Will Cost Us MILLIONS!
Meanwhile: Crime Victims Groups Are Being Stripped Of Federal Grant Funding By Trump Administration
Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink
Trump's Twisted Birthday Parade Plan To Include 6,600 Troops, Helicopters & Torching Millions In Taxpayer Money
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press (5/1/25)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Detailed Army plans for a potential military parade on President Donald Trump’s birthday in June call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians, The Associated Press has learned.
The planning documents, obtained by the AP, are dated April 29 and 30 and have not been publicly released. They represent the Army’s most recent blueprint for its long-planned 250th anniversary festival on the National Mall and the newly added element — a large military parade that Trump has long wanted but is still being discussed.
The Army anniversary just happens to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday on June 14.
While the slides do not include any price estimates, it would likely cost tens of millions of dollars to put on a parade of that size [See news item below story. — Ed]. Costs would include the movement of military vehicles, equipment, aircraft and troops from across the country to Washington and the need to feed and house thousands of service members.
High costs halted Trump’s push for a parade in his first term, and the tanks and other heavy vehicles that are part of the Army’s latest plans have raised concerns from city officials about damage to roads.
Asked about plans for a parade, Army spokesman Steve Warren said Thursday that no final decisions have been made.
Col. Dave Butler, another Army spokesman, added that the Army is excited about the plans for its anniversary.
“We want to make it into an event that the entire nation can celebrate with us,” said Butler. “We want Americans to know their Army and their soldiers. A parade might become part of that, and we think that will be an excellent addition to what we already have planned.”
Others familiar with the documents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been finalized, said they represent the Army’s plans as it prepares for any White House approval of the parade. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cost Of Trump’s Mad Ego Parade Estimated At $117 Million-Plus
“When Trump first pitched having a military parade in the nation’s capitol in 2018, plans were abandoned due to the exorbitant cost: roughly $92 million. Imagining that these plans include many of the same features as the ones from seven years ago, inflation would put the price tag closer to $117 million. Not to mention, the cost of the army festival already planned for the National Mall.”
— Trump’s Birthday Parade Now Includes Thousands Of Soldiers & Tanks, MSNBC
WATCH THIS, FELLOW CITIZENS! Federal Homeland Security, FBI Criminals Torment, Terrorize & Rob Oklahoma Mother & Three Daughters
MSNBC (5/2/25)
Rachel Maddow shares reporting from KFOR in Oklahoma about federal agents raiding the home of an American woman and her daughters while attempting to apprehend immigrant gang members they mistakenly believed lived at that address.
10-minute video
Watch How This Citizen Stopped ICE From Illegally Arresting 2 Immigrants
“I have no obligation to oblige by that warrant.”
NowThis Impact (3/28/19)
This citizen stopped ICE agents from arresting two undocumented immigrants because he knew his rights.In US news, this citizen immigration activist stopped federal agents from ICE from arresting 2 undocumented immigrants in his car.
DHS, ICE, and border patrol have been emboldened under the President Trump administration. Donald Trump has made it his immigration mission from the White House to demonize, detain, and deport immigrants. In tandem with Trump, Fox News has amped up its rhetoric against illegal immigrants.
Bryan MacCormack is the executive director of a local immigrant rights group. He was pulled over on March 5 with two undocumented immigrants in his car. ICE agents attempted to detain MacCormack’s passengers.
An ICE warrant directs various federal immigration enforcement agents to arrest the person named in the warrant. Because it is not issued by a judge, an ICE warrant does not give the immigration enforcement officer the authority to demand entry to a home or private space in order to make the arrest.
MacCormack was accompanying the two immigrants to court for traffic-related offenses on the morning of the incident. He says he was pulled over after leaving court. ICE has increasingly used ‘courthouse arrests,’ especially in New York. One study found a 1700% increase of these arrests in NY from 2016 to 2018.
3-minute video
If you thought being a victim of crime was bad…
…Trump just made it a lot worse!
CRUELTY IS THE POINT: Crime Victims Groups Stripped Of Federal Grant Funding By Trump Administration
"We're not just responding to violence — we're stopping it before it starts, supporting survivors in the aftermath, and walking with families through their deepest pain. When someone is shot in Oakland, we show up. Without this support, survivors will be left alone to languish in hospital beds with no roadmap to recovery — just pain, fear, and retaliation.”
By Scott MacFarlane
CBS News (4/24/25)
A number of nonprofit safety and victims organizations tell CBS News they are being stripped of federal grant funding by the Department of Justice. One of the organizations, the National Center for Victims of Crime, said it will have to shutter its hotline service for crime victims as early as Friday due to the funding reduction.
CBS News has obtained a copy of a memo sent Tuesday by the DOJ's Office of Justice Programs to some nonprofit organizations. The memo alerts the groups that their federal grant awards are being "terminated" because the funding "no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities."
Among the organizations who have been stripped of their federal funding is a major Maryland criminal victims organization, which provides healing services for major city violent crime victims. The organization requested its name not be revealed by CBS News to avoid retribution.
"After calling us, countless victims indicated that they had nowhere else to turn, but found hope, help and comfort from our services. The termination of this federal grant has had an immediate impact."
In an internal memo obtained by CBS News, the organization's leader wrote, "We are not the only organization impacted. Funding cuts and cancellations were also announced to approximately 55 other violence prevention, victim advocacy and substance abuse programs nationwide."
Abandoning crime & gunshot victims
Another impacted organization is the Youth Alive nonprofit in Oakland, California, which has helped young people who have suffered from violent crime. The organization, founded in 1991, touts its work supporting gunshot victims, including at hospital bedsides.
Executive Director Joseph Griffin told CBS News the loss of funding is a "devastating blow."
"We're not just responding to violence — we're stopping it before it starts, supporting survivors in the aftermath, and walking with families through their deepest pain. When someone is shot in Oakland, we show up. Without this support, survivors will be left alone to languish in hospital beds with no roadmap to recovery — just pain, fear, and retaliation," Griffin said.
Former Department of Justice Civil Rights Division official Stacey Young told CBS News, "This administration can't claim to care about things like supporting crime victims, curbing gun violence, and reducing opioid deaths while slashing grants to entities that do the hard work to achieve these goals."
Young is the founder of Justice Connection, an organization of Justice Department alumni who've spoken out against some of the Trump administration's overhaul of the agency.
Cutting lifelines for crime victims
The National Center for Victims of Crime said the reduction in federal funding is potentially debilitating to its mission.
"We're shocked that an administration that claims to care about protecting victims would leave so many vulnerable Americans without access to an essential lifeline," said Renée Williams, CEO of the National Center for Victims of Crime.
Williams told CBS News the funding reduction could force the shuttering of a crime victims hotline by Friday, April 25. Williams said the hotline had been used 16,000 times by crime survivors last year.
"After calling us, countless victims indicated that they had nowhere else to turn, but found hope, help and comfort from our services," she said. "The termination of this federal grant has had an immediate impact."
Williams added, "The Justice Department also canceled a grant through which the National Center for Victims of Crime is building peer-support group programs for crime victims at 10 sites across the country, as well as a grant through which our team creates educational content for National Crime Victims' Rights Week."
The DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, a former state attorney general in Florida, touted other grant cuts in a social media post Wednesday evening.
"The Department of Justice has started cutting millions of dollars in wasteful grants," her post said. She listed three examples: $2 million for "national listening sessions of individuals with lived experience," $695,000 for "a parallel convergent mixed-methods case study research design to assess the efficacy of police departments' LGBTQ liaison services" and $250,000 for "working with incarcerated transgender individuals providing gender affirming care to including housing in gender appropriate facilities."
The memo distributed to some victims' organizations specifies that any further expenses will not be reimbursed by the Justice Department and federal agencies after receipt of the memo.
"The use of award funds will not be allowed for obligations incurred, or expenditures made, after receipt of this notice, other than pursuant to closeout responsibilities," the memo said.
Trump Officials Gut 25 Centers That Monitor Flooding & Drought In The US — White House orders closure of USGS water science centers, which shares data with weather service for flood warnings… Link to story
UNIONS: Trump Attack on Labor Safety Agency 'Will Take Working Conditions Back Centuries' — The AFL-CIO and 27 labor unions on Thursday marked May Day with a letter calling on members of Congress to push U.S. President Donald Trump to reverse his gutting of a key federal agency. The Trump administration last month made major cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a "small but mighty agency" that "aims to ensure safety in a wide variety of occupations, such as mining, construction, agriculture, firefighting, and among healthcare, service, and office workers.”… Link to story
'Grotesque Spectacle' — CEO Pay Up 50% Since 2019 Compared To 0.9% For Workers
"This isn't a glitch in the system—it's the system working exactly as designed, funneling wealth ever upwards while millions of working people struggle to afford rent, food, and healthcare."
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams (5/1/25)
As people worldwide filled the streets Thursday to celebrate International Workers' Day and mobilize against attacks on the working class, a new analysis showed that average global CEO pay has surged 50% since 2019—56 times more than the pay of ordinary employees.
The Oxfam International analysis examined figures from nearly 2,000 corporations across 35 countries where CEOs were paid more than $1 million on average last year, including bonuses and stock options. Across those companies, the average pay of chief executives reached $4.3 million in 2024, up from $2.9 million just five years ago.
By contrast, average worker pay in those 35 nations rose just 0.9% between 2019 and 2024.
"Year after year, we see the same grotesque spectacle: CEO pay explodes while workers' wages barely budge," said Amitabh Behar, Oxfam's executive director. "This isn't a glitch in the system—it's the system working exactly as designed, funneling wealth ever upwards while millions of working people struggle to afford rent, food, and healthcare."
According to Oxfam, global billionaires "pocketed on average $206 billion in new wealth over the last year," or $23,500 an hour. That's more than the average annual income globally — $21,000 — in 2023.
To begin redressing global economic inequality, Oxfam called for top marginal tax rates of at least 75% on the highest earners and wage increases to ensure worker pay keeps up with inflation.
"It's time to end the billionaire coup against democracy and put people and planet first."
Luc Triangle, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said in a statement that the "outrageous pay inequality between CEOs and workers confirms that we lack democracy where it is needed most: at work."
"Around the world, workers are being denied the basics of life while corporations pocket record profits, dodge taxes, and lobby to evade responsibility," Triangle added. "Workers are demanding a New Social Contract that works for them—not the billionaires undermining democracy. Fair taxation, strong public services, living wages, and a just transition are not radical demands—they are the foundation of a just society."
"It's time to end the billionaire coup against democracy and put people and planet first," he added.
In addition to spotlighting the growing chasm between CEO and worker pay, the Oxfam analysis warned that the global working class "is now facing a new threat" in the form of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff regime. The humanitarian group argued that "these policies pose significant risks for workers worldwide, including job losses and rising costs for basic goods that would stoke extreme inequality everywhere."
"For so many workers worldwide, President Trump's reckless use of tariffs means a push from one cruel order to another: from the frying pan of destructive neoliberal trade policy to the fire of weaponized tariffs," said Behar. "These policies will not only hurt working families in the U.S., but especially harm workers trying to escape poverty in some of the world's poorest countries."
Common Dreams work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
FBI, ICE & Domestic Repression
Chat with peacemakers and experts on Zoom:
Tuesday, May 6 at
5PM PT/8PM ET
RSVP Now! — ttps://www.codepink.org/cpc56
Dear Mark,
These are urgent times.
People are disappeared and beaten for expressing solidarity with Palestine.
Trump and Congress approve another tranche of 2,000 pound bombs for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, where Israel continues to block food, water and medicine. Trump’s latest executive orders unleash local police to assist in mass raids of immigrant communities, and encourage the Attorney General to pursue sanctuary cities with “legal remedies” against state and local officials for “obstruction” of law enforcement officers “carrying out their duties.”
The Washington Post reports the FBI is ramping up investigations into leaks to the news media, “in some cases using polygraph tests that current and former officials say are creating a climate of fear and intimidation.”
Throughout its history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has tracked and monitored domestic political movements-and its war on dissent is far from over. In his upcoming book, The Imperial Bureau, author Chip Gibbons explains how the FBI became an intelligence agency and launched the modern national security state.
Chat with peacemakers and experts
Tuesday, May 6 at 5pm PT / 8 pm ET:
RSVP Now! — ttps://www.codepink.org/cpc56
Featured Guest:
Chip Gibbons is Policy Director of Defending Rights & Dissent, a national civil liberties organization that defends the people’s right to know and freedom to act through grassroots mobilization, public education, policy expertise, and advocacy journalism. At Defending Rights & Dissent, Chip educates members of Congress about the Constitution and edits the Gaza First Amendment Alert. A journalist and researcher focusing on the US national security state, Chip is currently working on The Imperial Bureau, forthcoming from Verso Books. His most recent piece is Mahmoud Khalil’s Battle Is Not Over for Jacobin.
The Goose Step cartoon was fantastic. I blurted out my coffee … missed my laptop by an inch. ICE can help the army learn the appropriate marching protocol for fascists
I'd like to make Trump a great BIG birthday cake and fill it up with all sorts of "explosive gifts" if you know what I mean.