I attended the Bangor Independence Day parade yesterday morning and took these pics (attached).
There were some fairly routine items like Congressional candidate Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent) marching with Susan Collins and Demi Kouzounas (who oddly chose to wear a blue shirt). Collins looked like she had just two intern-aged staffers in tow, and Kouzounas had just Jack Cianchette for a supporter. Paul Mills Jr. of Houlton (no relation to the Mills family of Farmington) wore a red Demi t-shirt but is a Theriault-contracted staffer, I believe.
Theriault had at least a dozen supporters march with him, as did the Democratic US Senate candidate, Jack Costello. State Senator Joe Baldacci (D-Penobscot) rode shotgun in a pickup truck driven by a significantly younger man (just gonna leave that there, lol).
RFK Jr.’s presidential campaign had a parade presence, with a half dozen supporters (pic attached). There were some Penobscot County GOP activists and candidates, and a couple of Bangor Democratic legislators (Joe Perry & Jim Dill).
Weirdly, the Biden campaign had just four very-senior citizens waiving signs for him, while Trump had none/zero. The crowd, from my perspective, was almost exclusively Trump supporters/voters, but his campaign had no official presence in the parade. Maybe it was better that way, since having four extremely aged locals waive signs for your presidential re-election campaign looked awful.
The big, disturbing news from the event seemed to be the overt presence of both the Bangor Chinese School and the Chinese Language & Cultural Center of Maine (CLCCM), who marched together as a group toward the back of the parade. Per the secretive, non-public list of parade attendees and contacts (pic attached), “Jing Zhang” is listed for the “Bangor Chinese School/CLCCM” at the beginning of the form (spot #7 in the parade lineup) and “called Tony” is listed in the contact slot for the “Chinese School” in spot #45 in the parade lineup. I asked for a copy of the list from the parade organizer, and was refused. I obtained a pic of the list only later and from a young, more sympathetic, slightly-annoyed volunteer who was directing traffic.
What made the Chinese presence so grotesque and obnoxious was the very pronounced, in-your-face flying of the Chinese communist flag by members of their group as they marched in the parade. I sent one of my pics (Image 8192) to the Maine Wire editor, Steve Robinson, who posted it on his personal social media account (https://x.com/BigSteve207/status/1808983670151393410) where it went viral and has attracted 100,000 views in just 24 hours. A smaller Chinese communist flag was being waved by one of the non-Asian-looking banner holders in another of the pics I took (Image 8193).
In that same image (8193) there are at least three red pillows being held, worn, and draped on the hood of a vehicle, which clearly are meant to represent something. I did a cursory search online, but wasn’t able to discern what they meant. The metallic blue-gray Honda minivan in that pic was driven by a thin, young adult male in mirrored sunglasses with a buzzcut who looked very much like a Chinese military recruitment poster advertisement (right out of central casting, as Trump would say). Looking more closely at that pic, the minivan has a small American flag on the driver’s side mirror and a Chinese communist flag on the passenger’s side mirror.
Finally, in those pics, there is a non-Asian young woman waving a large American flag slightly alongside the communist group. My impression at the time was she was part of the group, but looking at the images now, she plausibly could be a protestor, waiving the American flag and walking with the communists in silent protest of their presence.
Anyway, it was jarring, provocative, and outrageous to see the Chinese communists participating in the Bangor Independence Day parade. I should note that Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton was in the parade toward the very front of the lineup. I shook his hand and thanked him for what he was doing to tamp down the triad weed locations in Penobscot County; that he was putting the other Maine counties to shame with his actual enforcement of the law. He was gracious and polite. He may have a (non-law enforcement) elective political future ahead of him, if he so chooses.
Mike
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