It Is OK To Laugh At All This

CPAC crowd enthusiastically waves Russian flags as it waits for Trump to speak

Oh, man. I was going to write a "serious piece" about Confirmation Bias and how we all need to discipline our thinking by subjecting it to opposing arguments, but this is way too fun. Especially today after our Strong Man-in-Chief decided to limit White House briefings to press reps that are friendly to him. (See: people, Enemy of the)

Like the spring weather, April Fool's Day came early today. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meets annually here in DC. It is a congregation of hardcore conservatives, uber-evangelicals and far-right political types. Typically, it has been branded as an outlier of sorts in the American political tradition. But today, it represents the "new normal"; it is very much the center of the new Republican party.  Alt-Right types were dumped beforehand from attending for being "too liberal", so that should give you an idea about this bunch.

Here's another example of the new normal - a CPAC breakout session title: "If Heaven Has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why Can't America?" That's a good question!

Anyway, President Bannon spoke there and intimidated everyone. Then the PussGrabber himself showed up to speak with his best 400 word vocabulary. And what a scene! As the crowd waited for his entrance, they fervently waved Trump flags to welcome him. Except, well, these weren't really Trump flags.

Someone had gone through the whole hall and distributed "Trump Flags" to everyone (see picture above). The Trump Flags were really Russian flags with "Trump" written on them. So the entire hall was filled with acolytes waving Russian flags for the President. And here's the guy responsible:

This guy is now my hero.

This brings up a good point: can "the Resistance" to Trump be more effective through the use of humor? Plenty of signs like this at recent marches point suggest so:

The Godfather of the Political Prank was Dick Tuck. Most of his great stunts were against Richard Nixon. In the 50's, Tuck volunteered as a Nixon campaign worker and somehow booked him to speak at a huge auditorium; when Nixon showed up, the hall was empty except for a few homeless people because the event hadn't been advertised. The famous 1962 California gubernatorial campaign that Nixon lost was in some part because of Tuck's Chinatown prank:

Nixon had been under fire for an "unsecured" loan from Howard Hughes to his brother. When Nixon appeared at LA's Chinatown, Tuck had young local children hold up a Chinese-lettered sign behind him that read, "What About The Hughes Loan?" Someone told Nixon, who ripped up the sign whilethe cameras rolled. Later, when Nixon was speaking from the back of a train to a station full of people, Tuck appeared with a conductor's cap and signaled the train to pull away out of the station. It did.

Another great prankster was the Scotsman who supplied Trump with swastika-inscribed golf balls at the debut of his Scotland golf course last summer:

Then there was the wonderful prank when a radio guy called then-VP candidate Sarah Palin, convincing her that he was French President Sarkozy. Comic Gold!

A bit different, and more than a bit way back, were the antics of The Chicago Seven during their anti-war protest trial in 1969. Not a prank on a politician or group, but on the entire establishment judicial system.

Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin entered the court one day during their months-long trial. They were dressed in judicial robes. They created a major stir as they strode up to take their seats, robes billowing behind them. Their judicial nemesis, Judge Julius Hoffman, took their ever-present bait, yet again. He sarcastically complimented them on their sartorial garb. Hoffman and Rubin stood up and tossed off the robes, revealing Chicago police uniforms. Then they cleaned their shoes with the robes. The judge added more contempt citations onto them as it was all written into legend.

So we have to find ways to laugh at what is happening. We need to demean. Thugs and bullies HATE to be laughed at. The more that Trump and Company are ridiculed, the better. I didn't always feel this way... but things continue to arc away from Democracy and our Republic.

From December, 2016 (seems like a long time ago), Press Secretary Designate Sean Spicer tells Politico not to worry, that Trump saying he was going to limit the Press from attending White House briefings was not correct. The White House was not going to ban specific media outlets. To do so would mean we're in a Dictatorship.

But today, the White House banned specific media outlets, including Politico. Joke's on them! The Dictatorship is getting ready for its closeup.

Given this and the imminent hire of thousands of new Homeland Security agents for vaguely worded Gestapo-like purposes, I think we can officially rescind Godwin's Law regarding this administration. There. Dustbin of history. And the following gif isn't a prank, but punching a ridiculous Alt-Right Nazi wannabe like Richard Spencer (twice in one day) provides a small measure of schadenfreude amusement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

Have a fun weekend! And remember, April Fool's Day is not far off!!