Parade rest? No, make that parade unrest — and plenty of it. There continues to be lots of complaints against President Trump’s proposal to stage a military parade to honor American troops.

Rep. Marc Veasey, Texas Democrat, has already introduced the “Preventing the Allocation of Resources for Absurd Defense Expenditures (PARADE) Act” — a bill he says would prevent allocating taxpayer dollars on any type of grand military parade requested by either Mr. Trump or the Department of Defense. Anti-war groups like Answer Coalition, meanwhile, are planning a counter “mass mobilization” while VoteVets.org — an Oregon-based activist group — has launched a public petition against the proposed parade, saying it would be “an international disgrace.”

With an exasperated shudder, Michael J. Knowles, managing editor of the Daily Wire, recalls that in 2014, none other than Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a jumbo ticker tape parade dedicated to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, complete with brass bands and flyovers. Even New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio supported the “The Canyon of Heroes” — their name for the event.

“I stand with Sen. Schumer in his call for a parade to honor our veteran heroes, and New York City would be proud to host this important event,” Mr. DeBlasio said at the time.

But this week? A military parade? Heaven forbid.

“Historically ignorant and cynical politicians feigned outrage over the president’s idea,” writes Mr. Knowles, who noted that some critics compared Mr. Trump’s idea to show-of-force parades typically staged by “authoritarian regimes” like North Korea and Russia — or they squawked over cost.

“The regular occurrence of military parades in the United States seems to have escaped the lightly-educated fake news media as well,” Mr. Knowles points out.

Indeed, the U.S. has held impressive, polished military parades since at least 1865. In more recent decades, these grand occurrences — staged in 1919, 1942, 1946, 1953, 1957, 1961, and 1991 — featured proud displays of tanks, missiles, and hundreds of thousands of troops marching in perfect formation.

The last parade — “The National Victory Celebration” — was staged June 8, 1991 to mark the end of Operation Desert Storm and featured 8,800 troops and the commanding presence of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, plus a procession of 31 M-1 Abrams tanks, rocket launchers, Bradley fighting vehicles, Patriot missiles and other tools of the era. Another 83 warplanes flew overhead, while 800,000 spectators cheered — and 150 protesters who called themselves the Desert Flower Network assembled in Lafayette Park across from the White House.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

“What To Do in a Nuclear Attack: Not that it’s going to happen, but because it could,” proclaims a new analysis released Thursday by Popular Mechanics.

“We’ve seen what North Korea can do, and even though it hasn’t been in the news lately, the experts we consulted say that terrorists are still trying to get dirty bombs into the country. The threat of a nuclear attack on the United States is higher than it’s been since Berlin had a wall down its center,” the editors advise.

HURRAY FOR FRACKING

America has reached “a monumental and historic” energy milestone according to a scholar who knows about such things. U.S. crude oil production set a monthly record in January of 10.2 million barrels per day — which tops the previous record of 10.04 million barrels established back in November 1970, reports Mark J. Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan and a scholar for American Enterprise Institute.

It is, Mr. Perry says, “a remarkable and complete reversal in the 40-year decline in America’s crude oil output from 1970 to 2010 that has taken place in less than the last decade” — and he essentially credits fracking calling it a product of “technological marvels of engineering and scientific innovation.”

The milestone is a teachable moment.

“It also reveals important lessons about American-style capitalism and the American ‘petropreneurs’ who risked their reputations and fortunes, and spent decades trying to crack the shale code that finally allowed them to extract oil and natural gas trapped in shale rock miles below the ground when everybody, including the large oil and gas companies, thought that was a crazy and futile exercise,” Mr. Perry notes in his analysis. “America’s amazing shale revolution also happened completely independently of any planned government energy policy, and largely without any taxpayer subsidies or government mandates that other more politically-favored energies have received, like solar, wind, and ethanol.”

MELANIA’S REMINDER

Just so you know: First lady Melania Trump will host the 140th White House Easter Egg Roll on April 2. The lottery for obtaining free tickets for this traditional celebration opens Friday and will remain open for six days. Organizers are also seeking volunteers for this very large, but very happy event.

Find the information at Recreation.gov — an official, informative site operated by seven federal agencies: Army Corps of Engineers, Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Archives.

WEEKEND REAL ESTATE

For sale: The Andrew Barnes House, a classic colonial built in 1790 on one acre in Sherman, Connecticut, near Candlewood Lake. Three bedrooms, two baths, living and dining rooms, den; 1,607 square feet. Original wood working and ceiling beams, wide-plank hardwood floor, three fireplaces. Include perennial gardens, covered sitting porch, stone terrace and walls, adjacent vaulted studio, in-ground pool, garage. Priced at $325,000 through 12route39north.com

POLL DU JOUR

• 68 percent of Americans would not go to see the Winter Olympics in South Korea, even if they could afford it.

• 51 percent say figure skating is one of their favorite events, 31 percent cite ski jumping, 29 percent mention bobsledding, 24 percent cite snowboarding, and 21 percent name ice hockey.

• 49 percent will root mostly for U.S. athletes and a few from other nations; 29 percent will root only for Americans; 15 percent say it will be half from the U.S., half from other countries.

• 40 percent sat they “doubt’ they will watch the Olympics broadcasts; 34 percent will watch a few events, 18 percent will watch when they can.

Source: An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted Feb. 4-6.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.