Oh goodness, Space Force is still a thing. Initially it was a stupid joke made by Trump. But as with most things that come out of his mouth, upon his own further reflection, he decided it was actually a stroke of genius. Despite being told by his generals that this was a colossal waste of time and money, Trump apparently kept pushing, assigned the task of assembling the Space Force to disinterested high ranking military officers and now, Mike Pence announced that they are aiming to have an operational branch of the military by 2020. What’s more, Pence is talking about having a Special Forces unit to…do what exactly? Ransack a space station? He then went on this ominous sounding rant about making peace through strength, and having the US rule over space with strength…it all sounds a little like the Empire in Star Wars to me, which the more I think about, the more sense that interpretation starts to make.
So the new look in Conservative Patriotism is memorabilia with a slogan that says “I’d Rather Be A Russian than Democrat”. You’ll see these t-shirts floating around Trump rallies and GOP conventions. You see, it’s the next great message in making America great again. It shows how far Conservatism has come. You see, 2 years ago, the GOP considered Russia a hostile foreign power. They bashed liberals over the head with even the whiff of a notion of being soft on Russia and Vladimir Putin. But then suddenly, the winds changed, Putin was a wonderful leader, and Russia should be reached out to. Russia stopped being the enemy, and people with opposing political values took their place. “I’d Rather Be A Russian than Democrat” is the slogan of our country’s political divide, perfectly encapsulating this near civil war mentality between ideologies. And yet for all of that, I can’t find where these pieces of memorabilia first originated. Several vendors are putting them out, but for all the research that I’ve done, I don’t know who came up with it. But I can imagine Donald Trump might be kind of tickled by this. It shows how effective his sales pitch has been.
The NRA is apparently having some financial troubles. Apparently Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York isn’t such a fan of the NRA propaganda machine, perhaps finds their lobbying practices deplorable and is looking to hit them where it hurts: in their wallets. More specifically, I guess his administration is, pretty successfully, persuading banks and insurance companies to not do business with the NRA, and they aren’t taking to kindly to that. Now, I very much doubt that the NRA is going anywhere. There staying power is pretty good. But I find it pretty fascinating that all it takes is a few insurance companies and banks to turn their back to mess with the solvency of such a loud institution.
Alex Jones! He is… the best worst person in the whole damn universe. He’s just a bag of prejudice, anger and degeneracy. And it brings me no end of joy to see him fall on his face. Namely in recent days, when his “news” show (I can’t emphasize the sarcasm behind “news” hard enough) has been banned by all the major digital distribution networks that allow for mass access to his show. iTunes, Facebook and YouTube all kicked him off their services for violating their content policies. Now of course, Jones is claiming censorship (which is what zealots who don’t know what censorship actually means always claim when they get kicked out of a party) and begging for help. Namely, he’s begging Donald Trump for help. He put up a video on his InfoWars website, pleading for Trump to take up his cause, making his “censorship” a concern for the midterms. Though going to bat for a media company…well that might be a bit off brand for Trump. But in a weird way, I think Trump probably admires the moxie on Jones.
Donald Trump, Jr. might be looking at a bit of trouble for his participation in a meeting in Trump Tower during the 2016 election. For those not in the know, Don Jr, potentially (probably) with the knowledge of his father, took a meeting with a Russian lawyer in the hopes of getting dirt on Hillary in the election. The more information that becomes public, especially as it relates to a statement by Jr, probably drafted by Sr, the less good it looks for Jr. And I guess Papa Trump might be getting worried as well. Whether that is genuine concern over the welfare of his son or concern for himself over the blowback is up to whoever is telling the story. But whichever the case, it’s certainly causing Trump and his legal team time and energy. And the flip flopping over Don Sr.’s level of knowledge of the incident before it happened is only causing more waves. All I can imagine is that Trump would rather Jr. be out of reach for the time being.
Donald Trump, Jr. is a true to life comedy movie villain. Very specifically, he’s the douchey guy with slick backed hair, who thinks he’s clever, suave and charming (usually without actually being any of those things), and he’s always pushing around the little guy with a doofy grin on his face. You get the feeling he’s pushed around a lot of employees at ski resorts. So when Don Jr. attempts to wax intellectual on basically anything, there is usually a little bit of humor to be found. Don Jr. isn’t exactly a Rhodes Scholar, and frequently says ludicrously unfounded things based on other equally unfounded things he’s read on the internet. This week, while at a movie premiere (a movie made by recent Trump pardonee, Dinesh D’Souza) Don Jr. claimed that based on history (history, he added, as only truly informed people such as himself are aware), it’s really the Democrats who are more Nazi like, not his father and his administration! Now, any reasonable person looking into political similarities between modern day politics and the Nazi regime will be able to find the answer to that question, because as it turns out, while an often contested and argued academic field, it’s not a terribly secretive one. And if you want to find out exactly what the Nazis stood for, you can find the Program of the German Workers Party, written by Adolf Hitler in 1920, in all it’s glorious text. I encourage you to take a look at it sometime and see whose views are more closely mirrored by a German despot.
Trump again suggested to the whole wide world that he’s the most popular Republican of all time according to some “poll”. Which poll is a total mystery, and his claims on top of that are equally bizarre. He’s still claiming that he’s even more popular in the polls than Abraham Lincoln. Now, I’ve said this before, but it’s actually IMPOSSIBLE for him to know that. There were no real polling system in Lincoln’s time. Also what is he comparing that to? His popularity at the time? Because yeah, he presided over a war and basically altered the fabric of the economy by emancipating a race of people, in a time when Racism was still the normal thing. But Trump won’t be bothered to clear anything up. He did suggest in his tweet that perhaps someone should check the numbers because this assessment couldn’t possibly be right, and to that, I think we ALL agree. Mind you, if you check those numbers and decide there is nothing even remotely truthful about that statement, good luck not being called “fake news”.
The New York Times just released an article about how Jared Kushner and his weird story arc in the narrative of the Trump administration. From his high standing, to his water treading, to hunkering down, and waiting for a desperate POTUS to reembrace him, it’s seems he’s been through a journey of sorts. But all of that is frankly boring. Jared Kushner and his duplicitous face don’t interest me. What does interest me in that long story was Trump bragging that he could have had Tom Brady as his son-in-law, and that…that is hilarious. Listen, I don’t know what history exists between Ivanka Trump and New England Patriots’ star child Tom Brady, but I somehow doubt that Ivanka and Tom’s love story was written in the stars. But I can only imagine how much Donald would have loved that. As far as he considers the people around him as a grander reflection of himself, you can be sure that Son-In-Law Tom Brady would have been used to better sell an athletic, strapping Donald Trump, and frankly, people love Tom Brady more than anyone has ever loved a Trump ever. The idea that he still reminisces about what could have been is the best story to come out of the White House in a long time.
Political influencers and real life supervillains, the Koch Brothers, have taken a stand against Trump and his tariffs. Which makes sense. They have their grubby fingers in an alarming number of pies, and undoubtedly this is hitting their bottom line. I can’t imagine they ever pictured Trump’s ego would trump his business sense, but here we are, and I suppose they aren’t happy, and they are spending the money to prove it. Sponsoring farming lobbies and groups to take action, write open letters and in general making a big stink. They even sponsored an ad that featured a down to earth farmer removing his “Make America Great Again” hat, while the ad encouraged good hardworking folk to make their voices heard and remove these harmful tariffs and encourage free trade! I have to admit, I’m conflicted. The Koch brothers are all kinds of shady, and wield an undo amount of power and influence, but I can’t say I would be upset if the result ended in Trump backing off his trade war. The question becomes, which supervillain back down first?
Rudy Giuliani is out selling the new line, and it’s being repeated around the conservative networks like a wild fire…and it’s really disturbing. If we go back to right the early days, post election, the official line is that Russia didn’t meddle in the election, and Trump and team certainly didn’t collude with them to help that happen. NO COLLUSION. When the investigation into Russia’s interference began in earnest, a certain dossier was uncovered, and news of high level campaign staffers and cabinet members having connections and meetings with potential Russian agents, including but not limited to Paul Manafort and even Donald Trump’s own son, Don Jr., the narrative changed a little. Now it was, ok…we might have had some meetings, but nothing ever exchanged hands, nothing shady happened, and Donald Trump was certainly never personally aware of it. Also, still not convinced Russia did anything wrong. NO COLLUSION. Then indictments were made, statements came out, some of Trump’s confidants became willing to testify, and the narrative again made a subtle change. The people indicted were actually not really, truly, honestly THAT big a part in the whole campaign. They were small cogs doing their own thing. NO COLLUSION. In recent days, It’s become increasingly obvious that Trump himself WAS aware of certain events during the time they were happening, and as things are unfolding, the new line has been unveiled. Now the narrative is: If the WAS COLLUSION, then it’s fine. Collusion isn’t TECHNICALLY illegal. Anyone in Trump’s position given the chance would have colluded. Excuse me? Taking potential leverage from a hostile foreign power who could use that as leverage of their own? MMMMno. I don’t think so. I don’t think ANYONE would have colluded. Only insecure manchildren and supervillains, really.
Mind the Exit 