Trump Announces Right Wing Friends From High School Will Receive New Presidential Medals

"In recognition of their hard work and dedication, I am going to be issuing several million
Presidential Medals of Making America Great Again to right wing friends from high school all over the United States." Trump said in a series of edited tweets.

Millions of right wing friends from high school have been invited to the White House where they will receive their medal, a handshake photo opportunity, and a pat on the head.  Winners will be broken down into "Best Facebook Post", "Bigliest Tweet" and "Best Dinner Table Rant"

Commemorative pamphlets are being printed that appear to show crowd size on inauguration day, an electoral map, with a space on the back for a signature, not that the president will sign but where recipients must sign to receive their medal.

"I am deeply honored to receive this great honor.  Just honored " one right wing friend from high school said.  "Am I insulted that I have to pay cash in advance for it?  No not at all. I am honored.  So what if I have to drive to Washington myself?  I am honored, just honored."

When asked about the medals and where they will be made, the president said proudly that they will be made in America.  Rumors purport that they will be made by a company that he owns.  Sean Spicer said that was ridiculous and that the medals are being made by a company Ivanka owns so that there is no conflict of interest and, unprompted, stated "No they are not being made by kids in the basement of a Mar-a-lago storage facility."

The president noted that in order to boost the re-emerging coal industry, they will be designed to be a small nugget of coal encased in lead because "the American lead industry has been flagging for years and we need to bring it back."

Right Wing Friend From High School Shuts Down Democratic Party With Comey Tweet.

It proved to be a sad day for liberal lawmakers as Democrat Maxine Waters stood solemnly at the
podium to offer a brief statement before she stepped down and renounced the Democratic Party.  Complete transcripts are unavailable as most of her staff had quit after last night's tweet in reference to former Director of the FBI James Comey.

Right Wing Friends From High School to receive new presidential medal...

It seems that Republicans are touting an exchange that Comey had with Representative Hirono of Hawaii (where ousted former President Barack Obama claims to be from).  Below:

HIRONO: So if the Attorney General or senior officials at the Department of Justice opposes a specific investigation, can they halt that FBI investigation?

COMEY: In theory yes.

HIRONO: Has it happened?

COMEY: Not in my experience. Because it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something that — without an appropriate purpose. I mean where oftentimes they give us opinions that we don’t see a case there and so you ought to stop investing resources in it. But I’m talking about a situation where we were told to stop something for a political reason, that would be a very big deal. It’s not happened in my experience.

Right wing friend from high school then posted the last paragraph on his Facebook page and this led to the collapse of the Democratic party and the liberal media elites, contending without comment, that this statement proves without a doubt that Donald Trump is innocent of everything ever.

Robert Mueller, newly appointed special council (we are now obligated to spell it "council" instead of "counsel") was quoted as saying that "...In my many years of service in the Marines, my time as a lawyer, litigator, and as Director of the FBI, I have never been so thoroughly "owned" as the kids say.  I hereby resign as independent COUNCIL."  With that and what appeared to be a tear in his eye, he walked away, flinging a stack of papers in the air.

Comey, when asked for comment, state simply, "You got me."

Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway stood, embracing, in the White House Press room where confetti and balloons dropped from the ceiling.  On the balloons were stamped the words "Suck it, bitches, ---DJT"

Legal scholars are bewildered at the simplicity of the post and how Right Wing Friend From High School was able to so adroitly state the case.

"The problem with our legal system is too many words.  What Right Wing Friend From High School was able to do was take a comment, REMOVE context entirely and brilliantly whittle the comment down to its base argument thus proving his point.  The legal community and the "elites" have been doing too much "reading" and attempting to get meaning from words.  This FEELS like a point and that being said, once you get to the point where something FEELS like what you want it say, can no longer argue." said one legal historian.

The fallout continues as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the other justices on the Supreme Court make only sporadic public appearances.  We caught now former Justice Ginsburg sobbing on the steps of the Supreme Court building muttering incoherent phrases about a "wasted life" while Neil Gorsuch was spotted on a corner of Pennsylvania Avenue holding a sign that said "Will Judge For Food"

Right wing friend from high school could not be reached for comment.  Rumors abound and many are wondering how often he checks his Facebook account or if it is even his full time Facebook account or just one that he keeps so that he can make comments.  We will keep up with this story as developments unfold.

President Trump Announces New Press Secretary:Siri

May 12, 2017 Washington DC.
In yet another stunning development from the White House, President Trump has seemingly fired Sean Spicer in favor of a newer, more accurate White House Press Secretary, Siri.

Trump said in a tweet earlier today that surrogates cannot accurately report on such a dynamic presidency as his so he has hired Siri to manage his press briefings about the day to day inner workings of the White House.

Trump says, "Only Siri can accurately report on the day to day inner workings of the White House and not get miss any of the details of such a great presidency, bigly."

Siri was reportedly chosen for her accuracy as long as questions are posed loudly and clearly and her ability to speak in complete sentences.  She even spell checks.

When asked for comment Siri replied, "Only Siri can accurately report on the day to day inner workings of the White House and not miss any of the details of such a great presidency, bigly."

Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giulianni, Chris Christie, and Sean Spicer are reportedly elated with the new hire.  In future public engagements, they will simply hold the phone to the microphone and let Siri respond to the questions.  In the meantime, a special podium is being designed so that Siri can respond to reporters questions in the briefing room.

When asked if they will still be drawing a salary for simply walking around carrying a cell phone and holding it to the microphone, Conway and Spicer replied that it was more difficult than the job they have been doing before and implied that they would be asking for a raise.

Many have derided the move as cynical and claim that mocks the press. Meanwhile Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper claim that the move could be the best one yet from the White House and will save them both lots of money on headache pain relievers.  Kellyanne Conway replied that Dee Dee Myers was the first female press secretary, followed by Dana Perrino, and CJ Cregg and the media should be happy to have another woman at the podium full time.  She went on to say it was "sexist" to say that Siri is a bad choice for the position.

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Mike Flynn as FBI Director. Who is the joke really on?

I am going to be teaching a class on Politics and Media this summer at a university in D.C. and I thought I would talk a little about it here.

So I posted a little piece, out of anger, posing that Mike Flynn had been chosen to replace James Comey as director of the FBI.  I thought it was funny.  Many other people thought it was funny.  Many people did not find it all amusing.
As quickly as a half an hour after posting, it had nearly 1000 page views and people had begun to sound off in the comments section (and still are).

 The breakdown was pretty much as follows...
About 70 percent thought it was funny and took it as the joke that it was.  About 10 percent did not think it was funny at all.  What about the other 20 percent?

That 20 percent explains a lot about who we are as a country.  Most of the time this blog serves as a place where I and others can voice my opinions on politics and elaborate with just a little depth.  This one time, when I had an idea, born of frustration, I wrote something that I thought would be funny and lighten the mood about Comey being fired.

Several people sounded off with the comment that it was not "productive".  I beg to differ. Some read it and thought it was just not funny, but as I said, about 20 percent wondered whether or not it was real and began to go off on other tangents.  Within that 20 percent were people who did not read the comments above theirs and did not read the blog post itself.

Trump has often said that even if Putin interfered with the election (he did) it did not change a single vote.  With an off hand joke, about 20 minutes of thought and writing, I was able to untintentionally get about 3000 people to think differently about something and essentially fool them with a free account.  A few people said that is how they recognized it as a fake post was the fact that this is a blogspot account, not the fact that I said that Sean Spicer threw a smoke bomb after the press briefing and exited the briefing room via a cable in the ceiling.

Also wrapped up in that 20% were the Trump supporting trolls who enter these groups so that they can undermine them from within.  The post was used in some circles to show that we liberals were making stuff up despite, I say again, that it was obviously fake to anyone who took the time to read it.  To people who fell for it, I apologize but I also ask a very big "what if".

Some people say that Vladimir Putin is worth about 70 billion dollars and other reports estimate $200 billion.  So at a minimum, he is one of the richest people in the world if not the richest person in history.  So if a person could do something like this in a matter of minutes, what if a billionaire decided to engage in something of the sort full time?

Also something to consider is that this is a process that refines itself.  What worked, what did not work?  Many people recognized it as a joke right off the bat and pointed out the flaws.  First, that it was a blogspot post.  Easy fix, pay $20 for a web domain.  Done.  Second, the piece led with a comment that "Trump tweeted..." and many people noted that there was not a picture of the tweet and that there were too many characters in the comment.  Got me.  Third, was the fact It became apparent that too many people did not actually click on the post, they just read the headline and blurb beneath it.  In literature, it is called a narrative hook.  So, the takeaway is that if there is a good picture, a grabbing headline and a blurb beneath that is intriguing enough, the rest of the article is irrelevant for many.

In the coming days, if I can, I am going to post this piece in some right wing groups and see how it goes over.  The objective is the same, though.  How hard is it to fool someone?  How difficult is it to engage someone in a narrative that simply ramps up what they wanted to believe in the first place?  Cast your mind back to a year ago when people were saying that Hillary Clinton was on the verge of death and that in her spare time she was raping children in the basement of pizza shop that has no basement and wonder whether or not Putin's antics had an impact on the election.  Take a moment also to think about how easy it was and how much of that is on us.

There are two components at play, the trick and our willingness to be tricked.  I have written my opinion about injustices and the work we do in inner cities, immigration, etc. etc. etc. but by far the greatest response I have ever gotten is over a fake post.

Elijah Montgomery

We tweet at WritLarge
Contact at 9of9productions@gmail.com

Mike Flynn being considered for FBI Director.

In a tweet today, Donald Trump suggested that he might bring back Mike Flynn to be FBI director
now that James Comey is out, having apparently happily resigned from the postion. Trump stated,"Let's be honest, no one knows more about the inner workings of the Russia investigation than Flynn, aside from Jeff Sessions and the two will be working closely together, bigly."

Flynn is reportedly considering the offer saying that there is someone he has to check with first, but he is nearly certain there will be no problems with the appointment.

Republicans on the hill are saying that this is a stunning show of leadership from the President and given that Flynn was vetted by the Obama administration, there should be no problem with him taking the office.

When asked about Flynn's dismissal as NSA director and whether or not it should be considered when choosing him for the FBI position, Sean Spicer said, "No, next question."

When pressed for further comment, Spicer said, "I find it interesting...I'm answering your question...I'm answering your question!  I find it interesting that a hero that was vetted by the Obama administration would all of the sudden be "unqualified" now that he is being considered for a position for which he alone is uniquely qualified."

Spicer then threw a smoke bomb and exited the press room via a cable in the ceiling.  He was spotted later hiding in the bushes as many in the press exited the building.

Is this out of the realm of possibility?  Given everything that has been happening lately, I would say no.

What Can Our Children Teach Us About the World

About a week ago, I tried to do something I thought was pretty simple.  There was a meme floating around that suggested people go and give money to their local schools so that students won't have to worry about lunch at least.  I work for an organization that works with schools and helps them build school gardens.  I went to them and said, "I want to put $20 on a kid's past due lunch account."
They said they don't have that problem in that district.  All of the lunches and breakfasts are taken care of.  Yay taxes!

Still not daunted, I called the next district over and said. "I want to put $20 on a kid's past due lunch account."
They asked, "Which child?"
I said, "Is there some sort of master past due account or something?"
They said, "No.  You can pay for a child you know or pay for all of them.  Do you know a child in the district?"
I said, "No.  I just thought it would be a good deed."
They said," Let me get back to you."
That was a week ago and after several phone calls back and forth, mainly, I assume to make sure that I am not some sort of weirdo, I got a call asking me if I wanted to meet with the principal about the matter.

I work in the adjacent school district (kinda) and once they found out who I was they became suspicious, as though I was spying or something.  Nope. I just wanted to help a hungry child.  Then came the debate about whether or not this was some kind of publicity stunt.  Nope. I just wanted to help a hungry child.

I only had about $20 in my wallet and more than likely I was going to spend it at Starbucks so I had thought, "Why not?"  I believe that I am on some sort of watch list somewhere now and though we have no idea what kind of ties Donald Trump has to Russia, somewhere someone knows that I wanted to donate $20 to a local school and is wondering why.

Well if you are reading this, NSA or whoever, it is because we should have an urge to help others, children especially, even if they are not related to us or in our orbit.  As a society, we all benefit from a well educated population and electorate.  Paul Ryan, whose family received public aid notwithstanding, I would hope that a child would grow up and remember that someone unrelated to him or her did something for the them and the good of society.  Karma and all that jazz.
So, as a teacher (kinda), I wanted to see where our children's minds are in reference to society at large.

Last week on Earth Day, I ended a morning covered in dirt and stale beer.  We had collected A LOT

of aluminum cans for our kids' can drive.  We ended up turning in $234.17 worth of aluminum cans. Then this morning came the question of what to do with the money.  The adults sat around Starbucks this morning thinking.  We looked at the little things that we had to pay for and we looked at how we wanted to proceed with our gardening project for next year and beyond.

We decided the best thing that we could do was to leave it up to the kids.  100 3rd graders in Seattle, Augusta, Atlanta, and Greenville SC have until Monday to decide what to do with $234.17.  On Monday, I leave for Haiti to help a small village join our network of schools with gardens.  They were told they could send it along with me to Haiti.  They could use it and the $20 I was throwing in to help pay for school lunches.  They also have until Monday to write a bill for whatever they want to do with it.  As long as 51 of them agree, they can do whatever they want.  They could have a pizza party, save the money, or even have me light it on fire.

I like to believe that we are teaching them a lesson, but I believe it is more the other way around and we are learning from them.  The results of this vote will tell us a lot about who we are and where we are as a nation.  I think this is far more interesting than any recent vote in our history, more important that District 6 in Georgia, more important than the national election because I think it will tell us a great deal more about the state of our nation overall.

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Have We Reached The Pinnacle of Protest?

This weekend was Tax Day and we were supposed to revolt, right?  Well maybe not revolt, but at least get together and shout about how much we want to see Donald Trump's tax returns.  People did, for the most part.  What I am hearing now on Monday is a lot of regret and irritation on both sides.

Trump, of course, is upset because he is likely hiding something and this issue won't go away.  He took to Twitter to acknowledge it as though it were a recurring issue when in fact it is just the same issue that it has always been.  Then he talks about how there are a number of paid protesters incited by the media.  So as he sat at Mar A Lago complaining about how he won fair and square and the election is over and there is nothing to see here, people were out protesting.

Why are WE upset, though?  Is Trump going to release his tax returns?  No time soon.  Is Planned Parenthood any better off than it was the day before he was elected?  No, in fact they are faring worse for federal support but better in private donations.  The Keystone Pipeline is moving forward.  Gorsuch presided over his first day on the Supreme Court today.  We are facing military actions in Syria, Korea, and let's remember that we just dropped the Mother Of All Bombs in Afghanistan.

So what is happening?  What is being done?  Can we say that message is beginning to get watered down?  Who are the Black Bloc and groups like them?

It is getting safe to say that the messages may be getting lost in all of the wannabe messengers.  We are getting reports of events starting off pretty focused but then falling apart as speakers take the mic to talk about taxes at a Planned Parenthood rally or Black Live Matter at a environmental protest.

Then you have the Black Bloc vs. Black Lives Matter.   The problem is that you have two different groups with decidedly different goals but they are welded together in the minds of outsiders watching because their structure is similar and tying them together can be convenient for those wanting to smear someone.

The Black Bloc is a group of anti fascists who wear all black and go to protests to, for lack of a better term, start trouble.  They wear helmets and masks and show up prepared for "battle".  As we saw in Berkeley this weekend, when the fighting starts, it is hard to tell which side is which.  The Black Bloc is an open movement though.  They do not have real uniforms or any kind of leadership structure; just a bunch of people doing stuff.

When we look at Black Lives Matter, we see they face the same problems.  There are people who can say that they started it and claim an origin, but are unwilling to own any kind of structure for it.  In fact, they openly eschew ownership.  Without that ownership, any one person can do any thing in their name causing the entire group to take responsibility; just a bunch of people doing stuff.

For a protester, this is and should be a disturbing trend.  The Occupy movement had noble beginnings but without any cohesive body or a spokesperson, it was quickly diluted and became a bunch of people sleeping on the street.

The other side is learning and the methodology has been very effective.  Let's look at the #NODAPL movement.  The Dakota Pipeline was something that was in the works for quite some time before the protests began and the Native Americans began to dig in.  There were lawyers and engineers working on the best way to route this pipeline through that land long before the first temporary tents were set up.  Time and consistency were their best weapons and they worked.

They saw a harsh winter coming and set a deadline.  While people were marching in circles in the cold and snow, they had lawyers hard at work and engineers creating multiple designs.  The uproar many were seeing on line was real but that is all it was...online.  As we approached the deadline, people showed up to show support.  Keystone knew it would not last though and at just the right time (the time when it would have been too cold for even their own people) they agreed to try to work it out.  People left, those who wanted to stay were forced out.  Days later, it was back on track for the build with protections being endorsed by President Trump.

So it seems we have reached an interesting space in the world.  The waters are so muddy that we cannot see the bottom, or the top.  The one thing that we can take from all of this is that everyone wants to speak.  Many say that the reason that Donald Trump is our president is because so many people out there felt that their voice was not being heard.  With his election comes  a flood and all of those people who were not being heard, now won't shut up.

Have we reached the pinnacle of protest; the point at which running out into the streets with a sign does no good or worse, does more harm than good?  I think that now we have to start thinking about what we are going to do with that voice.  We are heading towards something but what do we do when we get there?  The general idea seems to be to keep going; to always be campaigning and never solving the problem but making damn sure everyone knows there is a problem and whose fault it is.

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