I'm assuming they fly those plans routinely and just diverted for the day
Thats not really the whole of the argument here. You could literally dump the cash int he nurses lap and it would be more of a thank you to them than some plans flying over head.
That it is a shitty way to say thank you and not one that any one they were thanking either appreciated or wanted. From what I hear most of them would have rather them done nothing than to create a shit ton of pollution and waste a bunch of money for no reason.
If we're taking George-Washington-no-standing-army as a baseline (and that's a good baseline I can get behind) then yes, it's a waste of money. As it is, that flight and fuel was budgeted and spent long ago. Whether or not it's appreciated is up to the recipient but seems like a nice gesture to me
The idea that the money is pre-budgeted and couldnt be redirected is part of the problem I suppose, not so much a justification.
with that said there were probably much better gestures than that.
Yes they were against a standing navy. the structure of the constitution makes that clear. The rules at the time basically is that there was no and could be no funding for a standing military of any kind (including a navy) and if one were created would need to be renewed at most every 2 years by an act of congress.
If they were against one but not the others one would expect that to be reflected int he rules they put forth.
No we are just on a tangent when it comes to a standing army. It has nothing to do with the original post as far as I'm concerned.
Well you missed a lot of things, but that does appear mostly how the conversation went, yes.
Considering the purpose of the flight was explicitly for them, the fact that you and others dont care what they want is exactly the problem.
Because if your trying to give a gift to a person or group of people, and admit you dont care about those people or what they think of the gift, your going to do a pretty shitty job at gift giving.
These are Blue Angels, they fly almost exclusively for display and nothing else. I doubt they would have flew that particular day without a show/display scheduled. Though im sure another show or display wouldnt have been far off.