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The Sizzle
Karma must be exhausted after this past holiday weekend. While many of us celebrated, Karma worked overtime to remind us that Donald Trump and his cronies deserve all the bad things they’ll get when they meet their judge. I’m not talking about their spiritual judge. I’m talking about the federal judge who will preside over the many, many, maaaaaaaany court cases that Trump and the Trumpettes (hopefully) have in their futures. Karma put the exclamation point on the end of the president’s Fourth of July party. Check out this headline from The Grio.
That’s right! A bunch of people who guzzle each and every batch of the Make America Great Again Kool Aid were forced to take shelter in the museum of their nightmares, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Cue the spooky music!) The NMAAHC is a museum so Black that it even has a Black nickname: The Blacksonian! Because of severe thunderstorms hitting the east coast (a collab between Mother Nature and Karma), the Trump cultists had to seek shelter in The Blacksonian. In classic Black people fashion, we invited them in, even though I’m sure at least a few of those vampires were Klan.
No, I will never get over Ryan Coogler’s incredible metaphor. Never.
Now, I’m not saying that I would not have invited these Trump refugees in, but I am saying that once they were inside The Blacksonian, I would have frogmarched them around every floor, making them read every plaque OUT LOUD, take in every exhibit, and then talk about them in discussion groups led by the ghosts of Harriet Tubman, bell hooks, Maya Angelou, and Fanny Lou Hamer. Before I let them leave the museum, they would all have to pass an 8th grade Black history test. I’m telling that they ALL would have to pass it before any one of them was able to smell fresh air again. Lucky for them, the food at The Blacksonian is really good. So if they had to bunk down for a few weeks until they passed the test they would be alright. NO DISCOUNTS THOUGH!
Another thing Mother Nature did to show us how she felt about this version of America celebrating itself was to send a heatwave to D.C. and much of the rest of the country. (Although maybe that was climate change.) It was even too hot in Alabama for one event. What a bunch of snowflakes! The storms and the heat cancelled that one concert that kept losing acts as July 4th approached, and Trump’s speech was delayed until 11pm. Trump had advertised that he was going to give “a really long speech,” but 11pm is late for him, so he rambled for less than forty minutes. In that time he managed to call out communists, but he had no smoke for the white supremacists who were certainly in his audience. Don’t wanna offend your VIPs!
Before you think I am going too far by accusing Trump’s audience of being KKK members, I humbly submit this photo into evidence.
That is a currently unnamed Black woman, riding public transportation in Washington, D.C. She is surrounded, on all sides, by members of the Patriot Front. Apparently this group of losers formed their group in 2017, in the wake of the murderous “Unite The White Right” white supremacy event in Charlottesville. But Judging from their look, I would say that the Patriot Front is just the casual Friday version of the KKK, a.k.a the Kasual Ku Klux Klan. Still 100% racist. Still 100% cowards. The racist cowards were headed to their own July 4th rally in D.C. and, of course, to see their leader Donald Trump. The irony of these numbnuts taking public transportation is thiiiiick when you KNOW they would swear on a a stack of Trump Bibles that they hate socialism.
I feel so sad for the Black woman on the train. I’ve heard many in the media lavish her with praiseful words, like “brave” and “courageous.” I’m not saying that she isn’t those things. What I am saying is that every Black person that I know sees her as a Black woman trying to get through her day—another racist day in America. To me, the look on her face reads, “Hey photographer, thanks for the pic, but do you have my back if this shit goes sideways?” Just add her to the list of many, many, maaaaaaaaany Black folks in American History who were just trying to get through their day, and, thanks to American racism, ended up in the history books in photos like these.
As a palette cleanser, here is a 250th celebration in Folsom, California. Apparently, Karma was not only working overtime, she was bicoastal. This video is a perfect metaphor for America. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. Karma is all class.
Don’t let the bread and circuses fool you. Underneath all this racist pomp and these tacky circumstances, Trump is committing crimes that, if prosecuted, should easily double the 34 felony convictions he already has. Every time I think about an active president having 34 felony convictions I have to look it up to make sure I’m not exaggerating. It just seems too stupid to be real that a leader would have that many RECENT criminal convictions and STILL be in charge of a country. Brazil put their convicted ex-president in jail. We let ours roam free, and now Trump is crime-ing like the Joker at the end of a Batman movie who knows he won’t be in the sequel.
The Steak
On Friday, July 3rd, California Congressman Jared Huffman dropped a ten minute long YouTube video that lays out a Trump-led criminal organization. This group of goodfellas would make a great reboot of The Wire, but it’s not so great that we’ve got an actual ongoing crime scene at the highest levels of our country. I encourage you to watch the video, but let me give you the TL;DR version.
You know Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas? In the film, Henry Hill, as played by Ray Liotta, explains how the mob will take over a restaurant that they like hanging out at, and, in the process, they will strip the restaurant of all of its resources and take advantage of all the restaurant’s business relationships. Eventually, when they have nothing else they can get out of the business, the mob will burn the restaurant down. This scene has been repeated in one fashion or another in other mob movies and TV shows. It’s commonly called a “bust out.” Welp, Donald Trump turned America’s 250th birthday party into a bust out.
Read Rep. Jared Huffman's report
Congressman Jared Huffman’s 55 page report has the awesome title From Vanity to Insanity: How The White House Cheated The American People Out of Their 250th Birthday Party. According to his report, in 2016, a group of politicians from both sides of the aisle came together to start a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization named America 250. The sole purpose of America 250 was to ensure that America’s 250th birthday was a celebration that could be enjoyed by all Americans for the good of all Americans (hence the nonprofit status). I’m not here to defend this organization or to claim that they would have accomplished all their goals, but I am here to say that if they had been in charge, then our country’s birthday party would have been better than what we just witnessed.
When Trump got back in office, he and his cronies founded a FOR-profit and HIGHLY-partisan organization named Freedom 250. Their goal? Steal as much of the celebration money as possible, OF COURSE! Trump slashed America 250’s budget and put those savings into Freedom 250’s “budget”. Trump also housed Freedom 250 within the National Park Foundation as a way to use NPF’s credibility. The National Park Foundation is the official nonprofit partner of the National Parks Service, and it helps guide charitable giving to our national parks. Everybody trusts the parks, so that made it easier for Trump to scam unassuming people. (I think this is why Mother Nature sent those storms on July 4th.) Even when people specifically wanted to make a donation to America 250, they were given the information for Freedom 250. That is what we call wire fraud! Allegedly!
Freedom 250 also gave corporations, foreign nations, and wealthy individuals a way to “donate to America’s birthday” when all they really wanted was to buy access to Trump. Because all donations to the National Park Foundation are kept anonymous, we don’t have a list of these who donated. No, you’re not taking crazy pills. You are just standing in the middle of a bust out. Minutes ago you were eating your dinner and having a good time, and now the restaurant is on fire. Let’s start putting out the fire.
Please read Rep. Huffman’s report or at least watch the video.
Share this information with like-minded people and un-like-minded people.
Call your representatives to let them know that you know what is going on and you are mad as hell and you’re not gonna take it anymore. But be polite.
Check your voter registration status.
Make it your new hobby to get your friends and family to register to vote if they aren’t already.
And just to re-regulate your system after all this information, watch this video of a rehearsal for the Freedom 250 celebration. Like I said, Karma was working overtime. Again nobody was hurt, because Karma is classy. Tell her, “Thank you.”
Watch this short video. Garrison Hayes doesn’t miss. Follow him on Substack.
Many people in the comment section have accurately pointed out that you could also use the “bust out” example to describe private equity.
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