Planet Earth is a memory. We now inhabit the Planet of Dumb, where up is down, two plus two is five and gas prices are perpetually at $1.98 per gallon.
That’s right, it’s another Dumb of the Week where I wade through the toxic sludge of modern politics to point out the sights as we slide deeper into becoming a fascist state.
Just a week after the White House boasted that President Donald Trump “is a strong supporter of free speech,” he signed an executive order aimed at prosecuting those who “desecrate” the U.S. flag.
Never mind that Trump’s order blatantly defies the Supreme Court’s ruling in Texas v. Johnson, which established flag burning as “symbolic speech” and therefore protected by the First Amendment.
“We took the freedom of speech away,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion on antifa on Oct. 8, “because that’s been through the courts, and the courts said you have freedom of speech but what has happened is when they burn the flag it agitates and irritates crowds.”
Curious what Trump’s Constitution-loving, free-speech advocates have to say about this statement? Me too, but you’d have better luck finding a dog that could play the violin than searching for a nuanced opinion from the MAGA crowd, which usually retreats into claims that insane quotes like these are merely “taken out of context” and should be forgotten.
OK, we’ll move on then. How about when Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller completely froze during a CNN interview after saying the quiet part out loud when discussing court injunctions against Trump sending federal troops to U.S. cities.
“Under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the president has plenary authority… has-,” Miller said before suddenly going quiet and blinking in front of the camera for about 10 seconds while a CNN anchor claimed a “technical glitch” was somehow at fault before going to a commercial break.
“Plenary authority,” for those who are unaware, is a term that means complete, comprehensive, absolute power that is not subject to limitation. So, they’re still casually walking out the whole “Trump is a dictator and people want that,” schtick.
Now, let’s take a look at some of Trump’s musings about the nation of Qatar in the past. In June 2017, Trump said Qatar “has historically been a funder of financing terrorism at a very high level,” and he supported a blockade against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier this year, the Qatari royal family donated a $400 million luxury jet that Trump could use as Air Force One for the rest of his term. The plane’s ownership would then be transferred to Trump’s presidential library, meaning he would be able to continue using it after he leaves office.
Even some of Trump’s most ardent supporters were leery of this “gift,” as it might lead to a “quid pro quo” situation similar to the one that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Fast forward to last week and Defense Secretary and former Fox News Host Pete Hegseth announced he is “proud that today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force Facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho.”
The agreement will allow Qatari pilots to train alongside U.S. soldiers. It’s yet another example of how Trump is cozying up to the nation he once claimed funded terrorism, including yet another executive order stating that the U.S. would regard any attack on Qatar as a “threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
Three words: quid pro quo.
Let’s just take a quick spin down swamp lane. So far, Trump has launched TrumpRX, Trump Gold Card, Trump Mobile, Trump Coin, Trump Sneakers and Truth Social. In the pipeline is Trump Golf Resort in Qatar, Trump Plaza in Saudi Arabia and Trump Tower in the UAE. First lady Melania Trump released a crypto coin, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner just bought video game maker EA and Trump was just caught on an open mic mixing personal business dealings and politics with the president of Indonesia, where the Trump Organization is set to open even more new properties.
How are your grocery bills? Enjoying that $1.98 per gallon gas? Are you happy that taxpayer money is being used to build a $200 million ballroom or to bail out Argentina with $40 billion while U.S. farmers’ livelihoods are threatened by tariffs? Do you enjoy seeing ICE agents behind face masks, ripping people out of their cars in the middle of the street? Are we great again yet?
I suppose the best way to sum up how I feel about the world today is with this quote that’s been kicking around the internet without attribution: “Sometimes I really think 2019 was the last normal year of our lives and, ever since, it feels like we’ve slipped into some alternate reality where nothing makes sense, everyone is on edge, time moves too fast yet too slow and the world we knew just doesn’t exist anymore.”
I suppose we’d better learn to love Big Brother soon, because I know how this story ends. Do you?
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