Last night, the DC fireworks being delayed, and the SF fireworks obscured, we were left watching Trump’s July 4th speech.
The fireworks shot off the Golden Gate Bridge were yet again shrouded by Pacific fog, as they are almost every year, from our viewpoint in the Oakland hills. (Actually, the SF fireworks are usually shot off from the Marina area; this was only the third time in history that the Golden Gate Bridge was shut down for a couple of hours, for this reason.)
We thought we might walk down to a prime viewing site, on a street below us, but by 9:15 it was clear that the fog would block all views. So we just sat at home and watched TV. At the same time, while there’s no official fireworks in Oakland, there have always been dozens or hundreds of local, likely illegal, fireworks, seen from our vantage out along the flats of Oakland.
As for Trump’s speech.
He trotted out a bunch a war heroes, and said he would give them medals if he had more time.
The Atlantic, David Frum, today: What Trump’s July 4 Speech Revealed, subtitled “The president demanded credit for a history that he regards as a sucker’s mistake.”
Donald Trump’s favorite movie is Sunset Boulevard. That movie tells the story of an aging silent film star, Norma Desmond, who has locked herself away from the real world so that she can endlessly replay past glories until she loses her mind entirely. In his Independence Day speech, Donald Trump indulged in his own protracted Norma Desmond moment.
The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence has been a Trump-made fiasco from start to end. The grand finale was disrupted by a thunderstorm that postponed Trump’s speech until past 11 p.m. eastern—and pushed the costly fireworks show into the early hours of July 5.
